The Blazing Leaf
by Sutiibun Raitobi
Summary: Follow the Life of Naruto Uzumaki, one who actually looks like an Uzumaki! Naruto will act a lot more seriously than in Canon. You can assume what elemental jutsus he will use just by the title of the story i hope. Pairings will come later on. Naruto is an impressionable child and by being rescued by ANBU, he wants to be like them one day. Prodigy Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

**The Blazing Leaf**

**A/N:** I do not own the Naruto Universe nor any characters from it. I may create on OC every here and there but for the most part everything belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. This is merely fanfiction with my own ideas of how I may have liked the story to play out.

I personally do not like it when the protagonists to stories are pretty much bumbling idiots. It seems far to out of character for the seriousness of the world that they are portrayed in. An example would be Harry Potter. By golly that boy was written as a dense as a rock.

In this story, Naruto is rescued from an angry mob on his sixth birthday, by the Hokage, and a few ANBU. This leaves an impression on him, since he is so young. This story will start off with several chapters going through Naruto's childhood. If anyone has suggestions on maybe a specific weapon Naruto may end up training with, as well as Pairings, I will start a poll if the story gets enough positive attention.

I will try to keep chapters above a thousand words each and will attempt to publish a new one every Sunday if I am capable. I work a lot though, so if I don't publish in a while please don't flame, just message me and I will try and get back on the Naruto Train. Several of my other works have failed to get some headway, at all fault to myself, but I intent to try very hard with the story I currently have sitting in my head.

Reviews are welcome, and questions encourage, as they tend to help the creative juices flowing along to my brain housing group.

If anyone would be willing to Beta for me, please, please let me know.

-BREAK-

Chapter 1: That change in life

The Leaf Village, Somewhere in the Fire Country.

Naruto Uzumaki did not have what most would call "an easy life". Being an orphan put a damper on one's daily mood like that. Having no memories of your family just made it worse, Naruto had been an orphan for as long as he could remember. Being six years old meant that you tried to find the happiness in everything, but unfortunately for Naruto, he could hardly be happy about anything.

Just a week ago, on October 10, what he was told was his birthday, he was kicked out of the orphanage by the matron. Incidentally enough, on the night he was kicked out, he had been chased around parts of the village by a mob screaming for his head. The only reason that he was not caught and injured was due to the interference of an old man in white and red robes, and a couple of shinobi in animal masks.

This brings us to the here and now. Naruto was currently sitting in a large armchair much too big for somebody like himself. The old man who had looked murderous last week had allowed him to sleep on the couch in the same office he was sitting now and would talk to him as he completed his work. One of the masked shinobis, in a unit known as ANBU as he was told, was standing directly behind and to the right of the wrinkled old man.

"Now, young Naruto-kun, I am sorry that you did not have a pleasant birthday this year. The villager's behavior was unacceptable. Inu, the ANBU behind me has spent the last week searching for a place for you to live. I am glad to say, he found you an apartment that the shinobi corps will pay for if you agree to join the academy and train to be one of my shinobi in the future." Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, said while smiling at the young red-headed Uzumaki in front of him.

Naruto, the now six-year-old (and one week, thank you) little blue eyed red-head had a small smile on his whiskered face while he thought on what the leader of his village told him. He knew he couldn't keep living in the Hokage's office, he would just get in the way eventually and be a burden. He looked to the ANBU behind his Hokage, the shinobi looked serious, if you didn't count the very gravity defying silver hair that was standing up behind the mask. 'I bet nobody in the village would ever mess with me again if I got to be behind a mask like that man is every day. Also, shinobi training will give me the tools to be able to escape the villagers if they mob up again and show me how to fight back. At least the matron at the orphanage taught me how to read and write before she kicked me out.' the boy thought to himself.

"Excuse me, Hokage-jiji. But if I become a shinobi will I be able to wear a mask like Inu-san here does?" he asked, getting a surprised look from the old man and a head tilt from the ANBU.

"Well Naruto-kun, if you become one of my very best, then yes, you can wear a mask just like Inu-kun here. My ANBU are the special operations unit for the village and excluding the Elite Jonin of the village and the Clan Heads, are some of the very best we have. You would have to train very hard to make it through ANBU selection once you are older. First though, you must be able to obtain the lowest rank in the Village, which is Genin. They are the young shinobi you may have seen running amongst the village completing every day to day task you can think of, yes?"

At the asked question, Naruto just gave a couple nods of his head, so Hiruzen continued.

"You would have to put in a rather large amount of work to make it into ANBU Naruto-kun, but I am sure that if you commit to it, then after a couple years of being a Genin you could make it to Chunin, the next rank, and sign-uip for Black Ops." Hiruzen said with an encouraging smile to the boy.

Naruto sat there, a look of contemplation on his face. 'What else do I have to do with myself now? I can't return to the orphanage, not after getting kicked out. Being a shinobi may well be my only choice in life, but that's ok. I want to one day be like Inu-san, and be able to hide behind a mask. I guess I should agree to being enrolled into the academy.'

"Ok Hokage-jiji, I want to train to be a ninja just like Inu-san! When can I start at the academy!?" Naruto excitedly says with the exuberance only a child could possess.

This brought a smile to old Sarutobi's face. 'The boy may be alone now, but at least he has a goal. Oh, how I have failed you my dear Minato-kun. I should have done better by your boy. I don't know what you were thinking, believing the village would accept a container such as him as a hero, not without him proving himself as a defender first.' Hiruzen mused while looking out of the window of his office to see the Hokage monument, and the fourth head, a stone copy of his successor, and predecessor.

"I am glad to hear that Naruto-kun, the next cycle for the academy does not start for another several months from now on January 31st. As it is only October 17th, you have a little bit of time before you need to report to the academy. I will ensure to have you enrolled, and I can give you the academy scrolls now so that you can take the time to read ahead and prepare yourself if you would like?"

"Yes! That would be great! But um, Hokage-jiji, what if I wanted to start training? You know, like all the physical stuff as well as the academics?" Naruto responded scratching the back oh his head, looking sheepish.

This really got the masked ANBU's attention. 'This might be my chance to get some time with my little brother.' Thought Kakashi. 'Should I request it Minato-sensei? This might be my best chance to help your son.' After contemplating it for barely a few more seconds, Kakashi nodded his head, in reassurance of himself.

"If I may Hokage-sama?" he asked for permission to speak. After receiving the affirmative from his leader, he continued. "I believe that since I am currently on day-shift for guard rotation, I can train the boy in the basics so that he can begin, I will even allow him to use training ground seven, as I won't be even entertaining taking a Genin team until another couple of years when my tour in ANBU is over."

This got Naruto excited, and he proceeded to rush from the chair he was in and slammed into Kakashi and hugged his legs. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you Inu-sensei! Thank you! I promise, you won't regret this, I will work super hard on whatever you teach me."

"Well hold on Naruto." Said Kakashi as he ruffled the boys Blood Red locks of hair. "Hokage-sama must first approve it."

This prompted both Naruto and Kakashi to turn to face the Hokage. Naruto, being a six-year-old, then unleashed the most devastating jutsu known to older shinobi when walking amongst their own village. The Puppy eye no jutsu, The Sandaime didn't stand a chance.

"I do not see a reason why not Inu-kun, however, you will not be allowed to break your cover while training Naruto-kun. Once your tour is over, you may reveal your identity to him at that time if you so wish however." He told Kakashi with a wry smile. "You may use training ground seven, and here is the scroll containing the basic academy training equipment that Naruto will need, here is one with a few sets of standard Leaf shinobi training uniforms in his size, and this scroll contains all of his taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, chakra control, math, history, writing, and traps and tactics texts that he will need to study." Said Sarutobi as he pulled three scrolls from a draw in his desk. "Whether or not you show him anything more advanced than what is in the scrolls I leave to your discretion. Now, Inu-kun, why don't you take Naruto-kun to his new apartment down the street, and then you can get him started on his training for the rest of the day?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Kakashi responded with a bow to his leader. "Come Naruto-kun, your apartment isn't far from here, in fact, it is right down the street from the ANBU barracks so that we can lookout for you a bit easier from now on." He said towards the young red-head and took his hand, leading him out the door of the office. 'Thank you Sarutobi-sama, I'll train him well.'

With that, the new duo left the Hokage's office and made their way down the street. With the aged Kage, numerous thoughts were going through his mind.

'I do hope this was the right decision Minato-kun. If anyone can better your child's life, I guess it would be your only surviving student. This could very well be the best thing for the both of them. Make Naruto strong Kakashi. He is going to need to be when he is older, I will tell him about his burden directly after he graduates the academy, he should be mature enough after some shinobi training.'

And with that, a new story of the Leaf Village has begun.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Getting Started

A/N: Here is where Kakashi gets Naruto to his new home, then takes him to training ground seven to start the basics. I still do not own Naruto. I will pump out as many chapters as I can as quickly while the story is hot in my brain. CHAPTER TWO, here ya go!

-Break-

Naruto and Inu(Kakashi) were walking down the street. It was only a block to Naruto's new home. His apartment complex was adjacent to a big wall. "On the other side, is where all the ANBU get housing for when they are apart of the unit. It makes it easier and it is free for the shinobi instead of having to live farther away from Hokage-sama. This place was chosen so that myself and other members of my squad can come and assist you incase you get yourself into any more trouble Naruto-kun." Kakashi told the young shinobi in training.

After getting to the top floor, and entering the apartment, Naruto did a little exploring. It was only a one bed unit with a living room and adjoining kitchen area. The bathroom was across the hall from his bedroom.

"Now Naruto-kun, we have stocked your fridge with all the necessities, as well as your cabinets. Three times a day for the next three weeks, an ANBU will be here, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and will be trying to teach you how to cook your own food. You must be here to let them in every day at 7AM, 11AM, and finally 5PM. This is so that we can get you self-reliant as fast as we can. We cannot afford to always be sending somebody to take care of you with how busy we are. Pay close attention to whoever is to teach you how to use your kitchen, do you understand?" Kakashi asked, looking down at the boy with his hands on his hips, trying to be as stern as possible.

"Yes Inu-sensei, you can count on me, I will pay close attention. When will we be going to the training grounds?" Naruto asked, nearly bouncing with anticipation.

"As soon as we get all your things unsealed from your scrolls, and we get you changed into your training uniform. Now come here so that I can show you how. Hmm, better yet, I should probably teach you to access chakra before we do that." Kakashi responded with a hand on his chin.

"Ok Naruto-kun, please sit down. Good. Now copy my hands with yours." He told the boy while making a full Ra, seal. "This is the most basic hand seal for accessing a shinobi's chakra. I will go over the rest later today. Now, close your eyes and concentrate. You must look inside yourself until you can spot what feels like your life force. Simply search your mind, and once you find it, try to pull a little bit of it out."

Naruto was focusing as hard as a little six-year-old possibly could. After what felt like an hour but was only ten minutes, he could swear he felt something, and tried to pull it to the fore front of his mind. He started to feel more at peace yet more energetic as the feeling grew. Kakashi was watching with a small amount of surprise. The boy had managed to find his chakra source incredibly fast for his age, especially considering he was supposed to learn it while at the academy during his second year after physical training. Kakashi could visibly see a small stream of blue chakra pump out from Naruto though, kicking up some dust from the apartment floor before Naruto opened his eyes and broke the pull from his core.

"How was that Inu-snesei? Did I do it right?" Naruto asked with hope in his eyes. He refused to repay the man's kindness with failure. It just would not do for the future ANBU shinobi.

"That was actually impressive Narot-kun. You are already above the learning curve the academy teaches now. The academy students do not learn to access their chakra until the very beginning of their second year. He fact that you already have a large enough core to pull some from is a good sign that you may be a powerful shinobi, with the right training and hard work of course." Kakashi responded with his patented eye-smile, not that Naruto could see that though.

Naruto beamed at the praise. He never received any when he was at the orphanage, and to have someone acknowledge and accomplishment of his felt rather good. When he learned reading and writing faster than the other children, the matron never said anything positive to him, she only muttered words that he could not hear under her breath. "Thank you, Inu-sensei!"

"Now moving on Naruto-kun, what you need to do, is to bite your thumb, and spread a little bit of your blood on the seal when you unroll it, and then using the half ram seal, like this" he demonstrated "And putting a small amount of your chakra into it. The first scroll you should use is this one, as it has your uniform, and you should go hang up the extras after you go change."

"Hai sensei!" Naruto responded before doing just that. After taking all seven sets of his new clothing to his closet, he came out ten minutes latter in his new attire. No longer did he wear the drab orphanage rags of a white tee-short and brown cargo shorts. Now Naruto wore a long-sleeve dark blue shinobi shirt, matching ANBU styled pants, and a pair of black shinobi sandals. On his left arm in red was the Leaf Villages symbol, and on his right was another in the form of a simple spiral.

"How do I look Inu-sensei!?" he asked his new mentor.

"Not bad Naruto-kun, you look like a proper Leaf shinobi, miniature of course." Kakashi teased. "Now, this scroll here has your training equipment, such as your kunai knives and your shuriken. Repeat the process you did with the last scroll, load up your holsters and put your extra weapons in your closet."

Naruto did all this, coming back out wearing a weapons pouch on both of his legs, the area of his pants with the holsters covered in white shinobi tape.

"Now Naruto-kun, do the same for this next scroll, put the scrolls for chakra control into your utility pouch, and store the rest in your bookcase over by the couch." Said Kakashi

Finally, once Naruto had everything, he could possibly need for the training grounds, the took off.

-Break_

At training ground seven.

"Ok Naruto, I am going to get you going on the exercises I want you to do before you start any of your training in chakra control, taijutsu, or weapons training. As you can see, there are three tree stumps for punching dummies, and a few targets placed throughout the grounds for shuriken-jutsu training. What I want you to do for your physical stuff will be to start up with 5 laps around the training ground at a jog, after that, I want you to do 20 pushups, 20 squats, 25 sit ups, 5 pull ups off of that tree over there, 20 burpees, 20 hello-dollies, and 20 flutter kicks. Once you finish all of that, you will need to take a 5-minute break for water and to do cool down stretches before you move on to taijutsu. Now, get to those laps my cute little student!" Kakashi explained with sadistic glee. This was going to be ohhhhhh so amusing. 'This is just a watered-down version of all the exercises that Minato-sensei used to make me, and my team do after all Naruto-kun.

30 minutes later saw a panting red-head bent over his knees trying to catch his breath after finishing his cool down. 'If I do this every day, I might die of a heart attack at a young age!' though Naruto to himself.

"Ok Naruto now come here" Inu-sensei called over to him.

Once Naruto was in front of him by the training posts, he got to explaining. "Ok Naruto-kun, now, every day, to build up your form, and to harden your body I want you to do 100 punches and kicks with each arm and leg. Once you get older, we will ramp those numbers up, but for now, this should be brutal enough training as it is."

Another 20 minutes later, and Naruto was trying to Simultaneously nurse his bleeding knuckles, and his poor throbbing shins.

"Here Naruto-kun, let me teach you to wrap your hands so that you can stop the bleeding." Kakashi said as he beckoned him over. "Shinobi tape really comes in handy for a number of things Naruto-kun, I hope you remember that. Now that you are done with your punches and kicks, lets get you onto target practice."

After showing Naruto how to properly throw both the kunai, and the shuriken, Kakash had him practice for another full hour. By the end of it, Naruto was hitting 4 out of ten bullseyes with each typle of weapon. 'For a first day of trying, that really isn't a bad way to end on his weapons training. This kid may very well just go as far as myself, maybe even you sensei.' Kakashi mused to himself.

"How are you feelining right now Naruto-kun?" he was asking since they had been at it for awhile now. Naruto was after all only 6, and he had been actively training for over two hours.

"I am doing fine Inu-sensei! Just a little winded and a bit sore from the punches and kicks." Naruto responded with a small smile.

"Good, now, we are going to go over chakra control, this will be especially important for you, considering you are going to have a large chakra core, I can already tell just from how much you pulled on when you tried earlier. The more chakra you have, the harder it is to properly control, but since you are starting off chakra training so young, you may just beat the learning curve, and not have any issues in the future since you will have a good grasp of your chakra as it grows with you." Kakashi explained to his young pupil. "The most basic chakra control exercise here in the Leaf village is the leaf balancing exercise. What I need you to do is take a leaf, put it on your forehead, and try to keep it there using only focused chakra. You should do this from the sitting and use at the very least a half ram seal to help you focus until you get it down. I won't be here every day to train you, so it is up to you to do everything I have shown you, as well as read all the texts the Hokage gave you that are in your book case at your apartment Naruto-kun. When balancing one leaf becomes too easy, you should add another leaf. After you get to say, 15 leaves at once, I will teach you the next control exercise, deal?" Kakashi asked his student.

"You can count on me sensei! I will study the texts really hard when I am not here at the training grounds." Naruto responded with a thumbs up and a closed eye grin.

And so the training of a new shinobi has been kicked into gear.


	3. A genius of hard work

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: The Random Enigma; I'll take that as one vote towards Ino getting together with Naruto later.

Fair warning that it will be awhile before we get to the point of Naruto looking for a relationship. He is going to have a ridiculous work ethic, he isn't going to have time for petty things such as crushes.

I apologize for any and all typos that you guys notice throughout the story, I use word, but sadly I don't always catch the mistakes.

Oh, and guys, I am thinking of putting Naruto a year ahead of his normal class. This way I don't have to go into detail about the Uchiha massacre until later.

Now time for the next chapter.

Chapter Three: A genius of hard work

It was now mid-November, just about four weeks since young Naruto had begun training under the supervision of his Inu-sensei. As the dog masked ANBU had promised him, another ANBU had come and taught him how to cook for his first three weeks of living on his own. Neko-chan, as Naruto now fondly called her, was the purple haired ANBU that took the time to teach Naruto how to live on his own.

To avoid as much contact with the villagers as possible, either Neko or Inu would drop off a weekly supply of groceries for the young red-headed trainee. Naruto, inspired to not be a burden on either of the shinobi who helped him out, made learning the Henge no jutsu his top priority once he got his chakra control up to par.

In fact, that was what Naruto was working on right now in training ground seven. He was reading the details for the Henge from his academy scroll, while he had seven leaves balancing around different parts of his torso. In just four weeks, Naruto was nearly at half of what his Inu-sensei prescribed to him for before he could move on to the next chakra control exercise. He had tried to read ahead, but unfortunately for him, the academy texts didn't cover anything besides pulling your chakra for the first time and the leaf exercise. This meant that he would have to live up to his word and follow through on his sensei's instructions.

This was fine by him though, he felt he was making good progress. He was just finishing up the scroll on the Henge. To him it seemed basic enough. The only person who he could probably transform into now was the Hokage himself, as he was most familiar with him. Sure, he spends a lot of time with Inu-sensei, and Neko-chan visited atleast every other week, but Naruto would stop by the Hokage's office at least once a day for an hour-long conversation. He would pick the old man's brain about ANBU, or about being the Hokage. He would even occasionally ask for advice regarding a part of his training that he wasn't sure about.

Just yesterday, the old man and Inu-sensei went over the hand signs necessary for completing the Henge and described exactly what he should be picturing and how he should be molding his chakra to get the jutsu down. Now, he was just going over the material one last time before he set to learning the jutsu. All it required was three hand seals. "Ok let's give this a shot, Dog-Boar-Ram!" Naruto called out while going through the sequence.

There was a puff of smoke around Naruto, and when it cleared and he check with a mirror he had on himself, he had… pulled off, a semi transformation at the very least. He looked like a deformed version of Hiruzen, with a giant bulbous nose, and extremely bushy gray eyebrows.

Off at the Hokage's office, Hiruzen happened to have been watching Naruto through his crystal ball. The old leader had a tick mark and sweat drop on his forehead.

Back with Naruto

"Well, I guess I'll just have to work on it, practice makes perfect after all." Naruto sighed to himself. He practiced his justu for another hour before giving up after minimum progress. At least he was able to get the Hokage's eyebrows correct. He would just have to keep working on it. Ninjutsu and chakra control were the last exercises he ever did for the day, excluding the long run back to his apartment. The training grounds were on the outskirts of the village after all.

Naruto had gotten used to his workouts in the past month. He now ran to the training grounds back and forth twice a day. In the mornings, he would work on the exercises Inu-sensei had shown him, he was now doing 10 laps around the grounds, 40 pushups, 40 squats, 50 sit ups, 10 pull ups, 40 burpees, 40 hello-dollies, and 40 flutter kicks. He had double all his workouts. Once he got into the training, he seemed to recover quicker than he thought he would and after the first week he had to start increasing his repetitions. His body just got too used to the stress too quickly.

Inu-sensei complimented him on his progress whenever he stopped by to observe his training, which was usually once a day when he wasn't on a mission. The praise encouraged Naruto to try even harder, to make his teacher even prouder of him.

"I'll get this jutsu down no problem, and then Inu-sensei and Neko-chan won't have to get my groceries for me any longer." Naruto once again said to himself.

-Break-

1 Week later

Naruto had just finished up his taijutsu training for the morning. Inu-sensei had decided to start showing him the Academy style so that he would at least have a basis, and told him that if he got good enough, he would teach him his own style as well. With that kind of encouragement our little shinobi in training took to the style like a fish does to water. He learned the entire set of first year forms in just the last week alone and had done a short spar with Inu to try and put it into a practical application.

Kakashi honestly was just baffled by the amount of inane and raw talent that Naruto displayed on a day to day basis. The child picked up material ridiculously quickly. Hell, he was sure that by the end of the month that he would have to follow through on his promise to show Naruto the next level of chakra control. He was already at eleven leaves when he practiced. ELEVEN! It was absurd. The last person to show this much shinobi talent was Itachi Uchiha, who was an ANBU operative sure to be a Captain himself soon enough. Itachi had graduated the academy at a young age thanks to his clan training and talent as well. Now at twelve soon to be 13, he was the top in his generation of shinobi.

Kakashi knew that it was a mix of raw talent, and Naruto's sheer determination to learn his shinobi skills as well as he can. The boy truly puts his back into anything and rarely ever complains.

"All right Naruto-kun, you know the drill, after taijutsu comes weapons training. Get to it!"

"Hai sensei!"

'The kid really does work hard.' Kakashi mused to himself as he watched Naruto throw his weapons at the targets around the field. The boy had improved from 4 out of ten with each weapon to 8 hitting the bullseye and the final two just barely outside of it. 'You may truly be a genius in your own right Naruto, you are out here every day without fail. Sad really, you should be in the park, playing with kids your own age, instead you play with weapons and chakra. What a sad world we live in.'

After weapons training, he got his student moving on to his chakra control, showing he had improved to twelve leaves in the exercise. 'Ok, I take it back, the kid will be starting tree walking in under two weeks, watch.'

After a solid amount of time practicing that, he decided Naruto should have more than enough control of his chakra now to pull of the Henge, hell most academy students didn't get past five leaves before the graduate then entire curriculum.

"Ok Naruto-kun, how about you try and do the Henge now, I am sure you can manage it, you were fairly close to pulling it off yesterday." Kakashi told the youngling.

"Hai sensei" was all the response he got before the red head went through the hand seals and whispered under his breath the name of the jutsu and a small cloud of smoke surrounded him. Once it was clear, Kakashi was proud to spot that it was a near perfect replica of the Sandaime Hokage.

"Good job Naruto-kun, you did it that time! Why don't you release it, and keep practicing doing it back and forth?" he praised his student.

"WOOO! I finally did it! Thank you, Inu-sensei! Of course."

-Break-

Another week went by, putting them at the last days of November. For the past week Naruto had practiced going into the village after his morning training to spot random civilians in the village to see if he could pull of Henges of anyone he saw. He was meticulous in his people watching, and used the Henge to start going into shops that he knew from first hand experience that he as certainly not allowed in. This alone got Naruto up to a very good level of proficiency in the jutsu.

Besides that, he had gotten all 15 leaves to balance on his body at once, and Inu-sensei was now following through on his promise and teaching him the next chakra control exercise today.

"Ok Naruto-kun, here take this kunai, today, I am going to teach you how to climb trees!" Kakashi told him with an eye smile, once again, not like the boy could see it.

Naruto just sweat dropped at what his sensei told him. 'Really?' He thought to himself. "Um, sensei, I already know how to climb trees, what is the point of this training?" he asked.

'Oh, this is the part I am sure every Jonin-sensei loves.' Kakashi thought. "Well you see young grasshopper, I mean, learning to climb trees, without the use of your hands."

At this Naruto's jaw just dropped. 'Is that even possible?' he thought, just as Inu-sensei walked over to a tree, and nonchalantly began, yup you guessed it, walking right up the trunk of the tree like it was nothing. It seemed as if everything about his sensei was gravity defying, NOT JUST HIS HAIR!

"Oh, I cannot WAIT to learn how to do that!" the boy shouted. I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to walk up walls if they were capable of doing it.

And with that, Naruto's training kicked itself up by another notch it would seem.


	4. Balancing out

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: Ok, I did a spot check on chapter three to try and minimize typos. I'm not perfect, so I'm sure I missed one here and there but hopefully it flowed better than the first two chapters.

Now for this chapter, we are going to skip to Naruto being in the Academy for a little while, let's say six months.

Chapter Four here we come!

Chapter Four: Balancing out

It was around sunset in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Everyone was making a move to end their days, except for one small child who was punching away at a stump, going back and forth, left to right hand. Blood flowing down his knuckles and he continued to smash his fists into the wood, getting it to splinter just a little bit more with each strike.

This child was none other than the Leaf's resident red headed shinobi in training, Naruto Uzumaki. Now Naruto had been attending the Shinobi academy for a little over six months now, as it was early July, and the heat of summer was apparent in the air. Naruto loved, and hated attending the academy.

At first, his instructors were vicious to him, and always tried to kick him out of his classes and lectures. Naruto, a young shinobi who takes his training very seriously, wasn't having any of that. It took two whole months before he could convince the Hokage to investigate the discrimination he was up against. His instructors wouldn't just kick him out, they would falsely fail him on written tests, and always tell the class that he cheated any time he decimated anyone during a taijutsu spar, the only ones being able to hold a torch to him being Neji Hyuga and some kid with thick eyebrows named Rock Lee. Now, thankfully, he had instructors who weren't complete and utter jerks to him, the other two getting fired or whatever. Iruka and Ebisu-sensei were much better, sure they were both rather strict, but each of them were equally strict to everyone.

Since the academy, and instructors who taught him on top of his Inu-sensei's guidance, Naruto had achieved a lot. As of last week, he had just mastered the clone jutsu, the last of the academy three that he needed to learn to be able to take the graduation test. Not that he would be taking it anytime soon. Inu-sensei told him that he would have to wait, as it was peace times and that meant the earliest, he could graduate would be at ten-years-old. If he stuck with his class, he would graduate at age eleven.

He was in no rush to leave the academy, in all honesty. On top of his morning training, going to the academy during the day, and his evening training with Inu-sensei, he figured he had it good and should take up the time now to train before he got too busy doing D-Rank missions as a Genin. Inu-sensei had been kind enough to use that as a warning to keep Naruto from trying to graduate earlier than he should.

Naruto now spent the mornings doing 25 laps around his training ground, 100 pushups, 100 squats, 150 sit ups, 15 pull ups, 100 burpees, 100 hello-dollies, and 100 flutter kicks. With his increase in strength, before he did taijutsu and he just wailed on his training logs, he punched with each arm 300 times, the same for his legs and kicks, and he also practiced 300 knife hands with each arm as well.

Naruto had customized the uniforms the Hokage had given him a little, just cutting off the sleeves, and using white shinobi tape to cover up to his biceps due to all the body hardening he did. Inu-sensei had shown him the basic forms of the ANBU taijutsu style. He wouldn't give him any scrolls, as it was a style taught only in person.

The style was called the Rising Shadow style. It was an extremely evasive style, that consisted of a lot of flowing dodges to tire an opponent out and to force them to over extend before capitalizing on a mistake and finishing an opponent off quickly and viciously. The style was intended for people who carry out assassinations, so it only made sense that the style focused on killing your opponent.

Another thing that Inu had Naruto working on now was trying to break out of and spot Genjutsus, which were illusions that could be crippling during a battle. With Naruto mastering the tree walking exercise over the last few months, he would soon be capable of trying to learn a genjutsu besides the clone and henge. The replacement jutsu was the only one the academy taught that was an actual ninjutsu and was currently the only one in Naruto's repertoire.

-Break-

Timeskip

October 10, Naruto's Birthday

Naruto was spending his birthday at, behold, training ground seven. He was currently trying to place his sensei under a genjutsu. He has been trying to perfect the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. This technique forces an opponent to witness a horrifying image, tempered specifically to their own worst fear.

After watching his sensei do a small shiver, he grinned, he must have succeeded, it was the only way Inu-sensei would do something so out of character.

"Well Naruto, I think you have that genjutsu down finally. Congratulations though, to master that in only two weeks. Keep this up, and I might just run out of things to teach you." Kakashi praised.

"Pfft, yeah right sensei, we both know that you know farrrrr more jutsu than just this genjutsu. I mean come on, this one is only a D-Rank, and I am willing to bet that you are at least an A-Ranked shinobi. You won't be fooling me out of any techniques. Speaking of that, when are you going to get me started on elemental jutsu? I am trying to get the rookie of the year spot here you know and going up a genius of a Hyuga isn't exactly easy you know!" Naruto responded, a little bit peeved. The Hyuga just seemed to be good at everything and was capable of always matching Naruto in a taijutsu spar.

"Hmmmm, well maybe, just maybe, since it is your birthday after all, we can start that for the rest of the day since you got the genjutsu down." Kakashi teased with an eye smile, once again, not that Naruto can see that.

"You're serious right?" Naruto asked with a gob smacked look on his face.

"Hmmm, I believe so, here, catch." Kakashi said as he tossed a wrapped box over to Naruto. "Open it up, and happy birthday Naruto."

Naruto caught the box and proceeded to joyfully rip it open. It was the first present he had ever gotten, not counting his Toad shaped wallet that he stored his allowance in. After getting the wrapping paper off he realized he was holding a book on Elemental Manipulation and the fundamentals and theory behind it, taped to the book was a pack of ten tan colored sheets of paper. Naruto pulled them off the book wondering what they were.

Almost as if predicting what Naruto was going to ask, Kakashi answered preemptively. "Those papers are chakra papers. When you channel chakra into them, they tell you what your natural elemental affinity is. If it is fire, it will burn and turn to ash, if it is water, the paper will get soaked, if it is earth, the paper will decompose and crumble, if it is wind, it will slice in two, and if it is lightning, the paper will crinkle in on itself. Watch me do it." He reached for one of the sheets and holding it in between two of his fingers it soon crinkled into a tight little ball. "As you can see Naruto-kun, I am a lightning affinity. Now I want you to do the same."

"Alright, I can't wait to see which one mine is!" Naruto exclaimed. After grabbing one and channeling chakra into it, the paper instantly burst into flames. To the surprise of both Naruto and Kakashi, the bottom fourth of the paper did no burn, in fact, it merely got soggy as if it had been in water this entire time.

"Umm, Inu-sensei, what does this mean? Did I do it wrong?" Naruto asked his teacher.

Kakashi was floored. He knew that neither of Naruto's parents carried an elemental blood line limit. 'The Uzumaki held water affinities so that wasn't too much of a surprise considering who his mother was, but where did the dominant fire affinity come from!' Kakashi thought

"Well, it would appear you have a very strong fire affinity Naruto and a smaller water affinity, which is rare, considering water is fire's weakness. Even then, having two affinities without a bloodline limit is very rare, so congratulations on that!" Kakashi finally voiced.

'It has to be his little friend that is inside of him, it is the only thing that makes sense at all.' Kakashi thought back to what had happened seven years ago to this day.

"Well, as I'm sure that book I gave you will tell you, before you learn to use fire or water jutsu, you must do elemental training. We will start with your fire since it is stronger, and to do that, you must teach your chakra to… burn a leaf!" said Kakashi, setting his red headed student to another difficult task, that he would no doubt master by exceeding expectations once again.

And so, our young friend begins to set things ablaze.


	5. Slow Embers

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: All righty then. Time to start some Ninjutsu training!

Tried and succeeded at getting past 2k words for this one.

Chapter Five: Slow Embers

Our 7-year-old little shinobi could be found sitting down in the middle of training ground seven with his legs tucked underneath him. His hair moved with the wind in all its blood-red glory, and eyelids hid his cerulean orbs from view. Naruto had his hands pressed together, palm to palm with one on top of the other, his brow furrowed in intense concentration.

In between his hands he held a leaf, one which he was currently trying to set on fire. This was the first step in his elemental training for his fire element obviously. Currently, this training seemed to be the hardest that Inu-sensei had ever given to him. He was already over five months past the day he was first shown how to do the chakra molding exercise. In the span of those five months, Naruto had only managed to burn half of a leaf at a time before he would have to go grab another and try all over again.

To say that this frustrated Naruto would be an understatement. After having been so successful with all the other training his sensei gave him, elemental training had become the bane of his existence. Inu-sensei refused to teach him any jutsu for his element until after he mastered this first step of his fire training. Sure, his sensei would teach him stuff that wasn't elemental, so far, he had learned the Shuriken Shadow Close Jutsu, as well as its Kunai counterpart. He could use either of those a near dozen times before he got exhausted, which Inu told him was well above average for Chunin, let alone academy students.

Besides those, Naruto had also been taught another genjutsu from his sensei. He learned another D-Rank genjutsu which his sensei said he had acquired from some Rain shinobi. It was called Mist Service no Jutsu, and it made those trapped under its effects see clones that seem to phase in and out of the ground and appear to be made of some blackish liquid. His sensei said that the technique was a great way to keep an enemy shinobi distracted, so that you could take them out from a safe distance.

Besides those three, well two if you really wanted to look at the glass half empty, two jutsu, Naruto had also started working on the water walking technique for his chakra control. It was him mastering this over the last few months that allowed him to be capable of using genjutsu despite his massive reserves for his age. Since Inu(Kakashi) got him working on chakra control so young, Naruto was literally spared the handicap of being barred from certain aspects of the shinobi disciplines. Though training his chakra control wasn't easy, it was a stark contrast in comparison to if he had not started chakra control until he got onto a Genin squad.

Still, all that success aside, none of that stopped Naruto from being absolutely pissed off that he could just not get the leaf to burn through all the way. As the sun was setting over the tree tops of the training ground, he paused his training to check on the leaf he was currently working on. He proceeded to huff in irritation after seeing that he had made little to no progress.

"You have got to be kidding me." He spoke to no one. "I can't believe how much harder this is compared to the rest of training. Sensei won't even give me anymore hints either, just keeps saying that I will get it with time."

Now I know, Naruto kind of sounds like a brat complaining about the difficulties of his training. You must remember though, the young academy student literally only trains when he is outside of class. His schedule literally consists of waking up at the crack of dawn and sprinting to the training grounds to start his morning exercises. After that he runs back to the village, showers, eats, and changes uniforms, and then spends a good part of the day in class where he only has a challenge if he spars with Neji or Lee. He looks forward far too much for when he gets a chance to spar Iruka-sensei or Ebisu-sensei since he knows he will most likely lose to them, so therefore he can push past his boundaries.

So, for him to hit such a road block in his training, after everything else Inu-sensei taught him, I think most would be getting frustrated as well. Naruto still pushes on through it, knowing it will be tough, but he is only 7 years old after all. His childish personality was bound to bleed through every now and again, regardless of how often he tried to emulate an ANBU operative.

Young Naruto paused his self-monologue to peer up at the sky. 'It's getting pretty dark. Guess I should head home and make dinner. Hmm, chicken cutlet curry and rice sound pretty good.' He thought to himself.

And with the end to another day of training, he began his sprint back to his apartment complex.

-Break-

The next morning, he woke to the sounds of the early birds chirping away. He had trained himself to not require an alarm clock, resulting in very light sleeping habits. Stretching with a yawn as he got out of his bed the red head began his squinty eyed journey to his bathroom.

After relieving his bladder and splashing himself with some cold water he went into the kitchen and pulled a granola bar from one of the cabinets. He munched on his light breakfast as he started pulling on a fresh training uniform that he had hanging on his kitchen stool. Once he was dressed and had finished wrapping his arms and pants up, he did a few stretches before heading out the door.

Anyone who bothered to be awake at this time of day would see a black, white, and red blur zipping through the village streets, heading towards the outskirts. Naruto never paused or slowed down, merely taking a moment to wave whenever he spotted an ANBU patrolling on the rooftops. He himself would take to them as well, but as he currently had not earned a forehead protector yet, he did not have authorization from the shinobi council to do so. This was another reason why he always left so early, he almost never ran into any civilians on his way to training. 'The less glares and whispered insults, the better' he thought to himself as he left the village proper.

-Break-

After making it to the training ground, Naruto took a minute before beginning his morning physical training. After all these months, his physical prowess had sky rocketed as he grew a little due to getting a bit older and eating right. His exercises now consisted of 100 laps around the grounds with 500 pushups, 500 squats, 500 sit-ups, 50 pullups, 500 burpees, 500 hello-dollies, and 500 flutter kicks.

With his friends in ANBU ensuring he always had fresh vegetable and meats, he was developing nicely. He didn't look buff or anything, but you could tell that he worked out considering he was seven and seemed to be cut out of stone. All his training had hardened his body to quite a good degree.

After finishing all his exercises, Naruto just sat under the shade of a tree, trying to work on his leaf burning some more. This was his day to day routine, with him occasionally upping the number of repetitions he would do, but always finishing with some form of training that didn't require him to move. He usually took this time to study the scrolls that his Sensei or the Hokage gave him, but he was determined to get his leaf to light up in a blaze.

"I'll burn you yet, you'll see." He ground out as he focused in on his task.

-Break-

Later that day at the academy, Naruto was taking a test on the Village history. He was currently answering a question that asked about the Shodaime Hokage and what jutsu he preferred to use. These tests were always too easy for him. He rarely ever got a question wrong. He had gone over all the academy scrolls multiple times by now, it's the only reason he was years ahead of his peers, not that they ever knew that. Everyone in the class just assumed Naruto was extremely talented and could always do everything within his first few tries. No one in the class knew about any of his extra training, he was just hailed as a genius, but one that nobody wanted to be friends with.

All the student's parents had warned them to stay away from Naruto, telling them that he was a delinquent, and that he would just hurt them and get them into trouble somehow. None of the students had ever seen Naruto getting into trouble besides the first couple of months of the academy, but they took their parents word at face value.

This was fine with Naruto himself, the only person who he ever had a rare conversation with was Rock Lee, and that was to discuss taijutsu, as it turned out the boy could not develop his chakra coils enough to utilize genjutsu or ninjutsu. Any other form of friendship with the blinded children in his class would just be a distraction from his goals. He had tried to start a friendly rivalry with Neji, but the arrogant brat had deemed him unworthy because he was clan less. The young Hyuga somehow ignored the fact that two out of every five taijutsu fights, Naruto would beat him soundly. Naruto did not understand how the kid didn't take him seriously, they were constantly switching between the 1st place spot on a regular basis, they were never separated by more than a point difference in their GPA's.

After finishing the rest of his test, Naruto sat there contemplating the leaf burning exercise while staring out the window. 'I don't need their friendship. Sensei and Old man Hokage acknowledge me.' And that was more than enough in his eyes. I'm training to become an elite, not some cannon fodder like the rest of my classmates.' He thought. 'I'll accomplish what sensei has laid before me, get stronger, and blaze through the shinobi ranks until I can try my hand at the black ops.'

-Break-

It wouldn't be for another five months until Naruto had finally made a break through on his elemental training. He could now burn a single leave in between his hands in ten seconds, the WHOLE leaf. Inu-sensei had deemed that worthy enough to begin learning a basic fire jutsu.

Currently Kakashi and Naruto were in training ground seven, standing not that far from a training log. Kakashi was attempting to explain the ins and outs of the Great Fireball no jutsu. It was the most basic and common fire jutsu in the Elemental Nations. "Now Naruto the handseals are Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, and finally Tiger. Most if not all fire techniques will end in the tiger seal. The Great Fireball no Jutsu is a C-ranked, short ranged offensive technique. This was considered a right of passage among what used to be the Uchiha clan, but as you know, they were all, except for one, wiped out by Itachi." Kakashi explained.

"Yes sensei, I remember the village going on lock down a few months ago." Naruto responded with a solemn nod. He had met Itachi in the Hokage's office a couple of times when the ANBU was returning from a mission, Inu had told him the identity of the Weasel masked operative. It was a shame that such a good shinobi snapped under the pressure and murdered his whole family, excluding his younger brother.

"How should I mold the chakra when trying to perform the jutsu?" he asked.

"Good question my cute little student. The best way I can explain it is to try and make a mental image of the inside of your throat. After that, pretend that you have a large amount of swallowed oil in your stomach, and then try to bring it back up, while igniting it just as it leaves your mouth. To prevent yourself from burning your mouth, you should use all of that chakra control of yours and use a layer of it around the insides." The ANBU explained. "Do you have any more questions?"

"No sensei, I think I will be able to get this down quickly enough." Responded Naruto.

"Hmmm, we will see Naruto-kun, we will see." Kakashi eye smiled in return, again, not that Naruto could see that. 'Though, I think you just actually might be right' he kept to himself.

And with that, a new fire kindles.


	6. Kindle

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: So last chapter Naruto started his training in an actual Fire Style jutsu. This is a big step for him. I am not trying to make Naruto into some super shinobi, I am just giving him an advantage that should have been afforded to him. The Sandaime in canon let untold potential go to waste, Naruto could have been a juggernaut by the time everyone else his age could have even graduated from the academy.

Moving on, I still don't own Naruto, this chapter will hopefully be 4k words long, if it isn't, it means I got impatient but at least you guys will have another chapter to read!

What do you guys think of Naruto using just a Tanto?

Is anyone willing to try and draw a Naruto matching my description of him? I would like to have a cover photo for this story but unfortunately, I am artistically inept.

Chapter Six: Kindle

Kakashi could seriously not believe what had happened over the past 14 months. His sensei's son had proven to be a metaphorical sponge when it came to ninjutsu. Tomorrow was to be Naruto's ninth birthday, and Kakashi truly didn't know how to measure the kid's performance during training, Itachi and himself were the only two that he could hold a torch to the kid in comparison to age and talent.

Learning how to do the Great Fireball no jutsu hadn't taken Naruto that long at all. It had only taken a month of practicing building fire chakra in his throat and then trying to safely expel it from his body in a controlled fashion. After getting that down, Naruto had taken on an obsession with perfectionism and did not want to work on a new jutsu until his first fire one was deemed by Kakashi to be combat ready.

Getting the Great Fireball up to a chunin standard is what Naruto had accomplished. This took four months, as Naruto rarely deviated too much from his training schedule to ignore any of the other shinobi disciplines.

For those remaining nine months leading up to this point in time, Naruto had taken only three months each, on three more C-ranked fire ninjutsus to get them up to an acceptable combat standard. Naruto now had a total of for elemental jutsu to add to his arsenal, and Kakashi was watching him practice those four jutsu right now in training ground seven.

Naruto threw shuriken with ninja wire attached, manipulating them to wrap around his target, a large rock sticking out of the ground. Once his target was officially 'restrained' he held all the wire in one hand and proceeded to go through a hand seal sequence. 'Snake, dragon, rabbit, tiger! Dragon Fire no jutsu!' Building up the flames in his throat, he smoothly brought the ninja wire to his mouth and transferred the flames, letting them rush down the wire. The flames rushed down the length and consumed the rock, hiding it from view as the flames grew larger and hotter.

When the flames cleared, there was only a molten puddle of magma and a pillar of smoke coming from where the rock once stood. This is the exact effect Naruto was hoping for, this technique was the second that Inu-sensei had taught to him. It was so Naruto would have a technique that would be great for apprehending and assassinating a target if it came down to it. The Dragon Fire no jutsu could melt skin and rock alike, unfortunately it was not the most versatile of jutsu.

After confirming a successful jutsu execution, Naruto immediately targeted a training log and jumped into the air as he ran through another hand seal sequence. 'Snake, ram, monkey, boar,horse, tiger! Flame Bullet!' Naruto gathered oil in his mouth and proceeded to spit out two compressed balls of it towards the stump, igniting them as they made their way past his lips. One bullet stuck high, the other low, properly coating the entire log in the burning liquid. This was a more potent offensive fire technique that required more chakra than the great fireball no jutsu. It burned at a higher temperature and took longer to gather the chakra necessary to create the oil in your mouth. This could be avoided by using less oil however, honestly it all depended on the situation.

After the completion of the jutsu, Naruto landed back on the ground in a crouch, chose another training stump, and proceeded into another hand seal sequence for his final fire jutsu. 'Rat, tiger, dog. Ox, rabbit, tiger! Phoenix sage fire no jutsu!' and Naruto condensed some more fire in his throat and began to fire smaller fireballs at the stump at a rate of three every second. He kept this up for five seconds, firing a total of fifteen mini fireballs, and hitting the log with them all.

Naruto slowly stood up after releasing his jutsu and took a long, slow breath. Ninjutsu training always took a lot out of him, especially because it was the last thing on his schedule to do every day. After nodding to himself with a final inspection given to all of his jutsus "victims" he started walking back over to Inu.

"So Inu-sensei, how do you think I am coming along with my fire-style?" he asked his ANBU mentor.

"Well, not too shabby, if I do say so myself Naruto. You have seriously shattered all my expectations of you. If you keep at this, there is no way you will be a genin for very long after you graduate. Speaking of that, how much time left do you have? We don't really ever speak about your time away from the training grounds." Kakashi responded. He was asking because he knew that soon, he would be retiring from ANBU to take up his role as a Jonin-sensei. In all honesty, after being Naruto's teacher for nearly three years, he can't say that he doesn't enjoy teaching.

Naruto sighed to this. He just really did not like his classmates, Rock Lee being the exception.

"Well sensei, I would like to graduate a year early from my class." He said with a frown.

"Now why would you do that? I thought you wanted to train as long as possible and put off the unescapable curse of D-rank missions for now?" Kakashi asked with confusion laced in his tone. He was under the belief that Naruto planned to finish with his class, he was already a full year younger than them already, let alone the next class which was two ahead of him.

"I would like to graduate with my class sensei, I actually like my teachers there after all. Iruka-sensei is nice, he has taken me out for ramen a time or two to reward me for being one of the top two performers in his class. Then Ebisu-sensei isn't hostile towards me and gives pretty good hints on how to utilize the basics better. Honestly, the problem are my classmates. Most of them suck at the shinobi disciplines. There are honestly only three other students who are dedicated to it. The rest all come from civilian backgrounds and don't take the academy seriously. Most of the class hasn't finished the academy three Inu-sensei, why would I want to be on a team with any of them?" Naruto ranted with obvious frustration.

'Damn Naruto, I didn't know that your classmates were that bad. Still….'

"Well what about those three that you complimented, wouldn't you want to be on a team with a couple of them?" Kakashi asked his student with optimism.

To this Naruto just scoffed. "Please, sensei, the Hyuga would be a good teammate I guess, if he could get that large kunai pulled out of his ass. He has got to be the most stuck up scum I have ever met. He treats me like filth because I am a no named orphan and disregards the fact that most of the times, I beat him in taijutsu spars. I beat him three out of every five spars now, and the bastard has the nerve to talk down to me. I am the one who currently holds the rookie of the year title in the class, and the only two who ever show me any form of respect or even common decency are Rock Lee and this girl TenTen."

"Well what about a team with this TenTen and that Lee kid?" Kakashi asked.

"TenTen has a crush on the Hyuga, sure, she never insults me and recognizes me as the best in the class, but she would prefer to be with the stuck-up prick, so I say let him have her. As for Lee, well, I like the kid, but he is a liability sensei. He started training in taijutsu under some hotshot Jonin not too long ago because he found out he is incapable of either gen or Ninjutsu. Underdeveloped chakra coils or something. I don't want a shinobi on my team who can't do collaborative jutsu, and the kid wears a terrible green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers now. Despicable." Naruto finished with a shiver. "And he has a bowl-cut now as well. It gives me the creeps; the kids eyebrows are to large for that haircut sensei!" he added on.

'Oh no! Don't tell me the Hokage is allowing Guy to teach an academy student. It sounds like he turned him into a miniature version of himself!' Kakashi thought with horror.

"Well, be that as it may Naruto, the problem is that the class ahead of you graduates before your tenth birthday, the exam is set for September every year, you know that, and Hokage-sama will not make an exception just because he treats you like a grandson you know."

"I know sensei, I know. Hmm. What if I go back to my actual age group? Would that be acceptable?" Naruto asked after the idea popped into his head.

"Not unless you want to be labeled the dead last of the academy, they will only transfer you if you start failing miserably, and that won't happen since we all already know exactly how skilled you are. Hokage-sama will not allow you to hold yourself back Naruto-kun. I am sorry, you will just have to hope for the best when it comes to team assignments." Kakashi responded.

Naruto sighed once again. "Damn, I figured. Is there really no way for me to go straight into ANBU sensei?" this was Naruto's last hope of getting away from a terrible team.

'Sorry kid' "No Naruto, the Hokage would kill me very slowly kill me if I let a soon to be nine-year-old become an operative, no matter how skilled." Kakashi replied with a sigh of his own.

"I'll tell you what though, we have nearly another two years of me being able to teach you, I won't end up your Jonin-sensei, I can confirm that much, the council has given me a special assignment for that, but I will be out of ANBU next August so that I can get some time away from special operations and resume normal shinobi duties. When August hits, you and I will be able to meet face to face finally, and I will still have plenty of time to train you when I don't have missions. For this next year, we will up your physical training, and try to get you faster, and I will try to teach you some B-ranked fire jutsu if I can, as well as continuing your genjutsu training. After we meet face to face, I will teach you a personalized weapon of your choice, and If you are good, I'll get you your own weapon for your tenth birthday, how does that sound?" Kakashi asked. He knew the easiest way to cheer the red head up a bit was by bribing him with more and harder shinobi training. The kid loved to be challenged.

Naruto immediately perked up at the thought of this. 'I mean, with all that extra training, does it really matter if my teammates aren't the best? I will be able to cover any of their deficiencies if any arise. And oooo, new jutsuuuu.' Naruto was nearly drooling. Training truly was his favorite thing to do.

"You have yourself a deal sensei!" he replied.

"Ok, good, we are done for the day and you have class tomorrow, but I will meet you here for your morning training, I have a surprise for you." As Kakashi said this, he was cackling in his head. Naruto had no idea what he had just gotten himself into. 'I am going to run this boy into the ground!'

"Hai sensei!"

And with that the two made their way out of the clearing.

-Break-

The next day saw our young red headed friend arriving at training ground seven to begin his training with Inu-sensei. Today was also his ninth birthday.

'I wonder what he has in store for me today.' He thought to himself as Kakashi appeared in front of him in a swirl of leaves. 'And I hope I learn the shunshin no jutst soon too.'

"Good morning Inu-sensei, what are we doing today?"

"I am glad you asjed Naruto, I have a birthday gift for you, here." Kakashi responded with far too much cheer in his voice as he handed Naruto a wrapped box package. "Open up your present now."

Naruto immediately perked up at the thought of a present, I mean hey, he just turned nine.

"Oh boy, what is it!" he chirped as he ripped the packaging off.

Inside he found what looked like metallic wrist and ankle bands that were painted black with some red markings covering them.

"Umm sensei, are these supposed to be new additions to my shinobi uniform or something?" Naruto asked with confusion.

"Hmm, I don't know Naruto, why don't you try them on?" Kakashi replied with an eye smile. Not that Naruto could see… still.

Naruto just nodded and pulled them on over his shinobi tape for both his arms and legs.

"Now, channel a very small amount of chakra into all four of the bands Naruto."

"Umm ok." As Naruto took up a half ram seal and proceeded to pump chakra into the bands, he began to feel heavier. "Hey what the hell!?" he shouted before he collapsed to the ground unable to move. "Sensei! Is this supposed to happen!? Help!" Naruto cried out to his teacher.

Said teacher could be seen dying with laughter. Kakashi was bent over holding his knees trying to regain his breath. "Ohh I am sorry Naruto-kun, but I just couldn't not try that out on you. You did what I expected you too and poured way too much chakra into those. They are chakra weights, and they are always to be worn from now on. To make them lighter just focus on pulling the chakra back out of them, once the weight is still heavy, but at a level that you can move with only some difficulty you can stop. I'd say a good starting weight for you may feel like ten pounds on each of the bands so once you feel that much, you should be good."

"That was just plain mean sensei" Naruto responded with a pout. Either way, he followed instructions and brought the weights to the specified level and stood back up. It felt weird to the red head to be so weighed down.

"So, what are the points of these weights sensei?" Naruto asked with his head tilted as he tried to get a feel for the weight.

"The point Naruto-kun is to try and make you, A. Stronger, and B. Faster. If you can get back up to your regular training repetitions, I want you to up the weight again. Every time you catch back up to your normal reps that you have gotten to doing up until this point is when you should add, I don't know, say another five pounds to each of your limbs. You are at a point where you are developed enough, and you have the chakra and recovery abilities to start this training so young. I talked to the Jonin who is teaching your friend Rock Lee, he has started using weights as well, and I'll be damned if a student of mine falls behind a student of Might Guy's!" Kakashi explained in a long-winded rant.

Naruto just sweat dropped at this. 'So, I'm a competition tool for him? Whatever, training is training.' "So, you are saying I must be able to do 250 laps around the grounds, 1000 reps for pushups, squats, sit-ups, hello-dollies, and flutter kicks, and 200 pullups with all this extra weight? That shouldn't take too long should it? I mean it sounds easy enough." He naively replied to his sensei.

"Easy huh? You do realize that in the afternoons you will be doing taijutsu spars with me while those weights are on, right?" Kakashi told his student.

Naruto just froze. 'Oh lord, why?' he asked himself.

"You know the drill Naruto-kun, get to it, you have to finish you exercises and make it back to the academy after all, shoot for 500 reps of most of your stuff, now begin!"

Naruto just gulped in response, he could move, but only just barely. "Yes sensei."

-Break-

Four months later saw Naruto eventually getting used to having the weights added onto his normal training. He currently had enough chakra pumped into them to make each weight weigh twenty pounds, he had added weight only two times since getting them for his birthday. In those four months, Inu had taught him another genjutsu, getting him up to a total of three outside of the academy two that he knows. This technique was a C-ranked and was called Demonic Illusion: False surroundings no jutsu. It simply changed the appearance of objects in the victims view to throw them off balance in a fight.

After always practicing his now moderate list of jutsu in spars with his Inu-sensei, he was just starting to learn the basics of a new fire jutsu. It was the B-Ranked that Inu-sensei had promised to try and teach him. This one was called the Blast Wave wild Dance no Jutsu. Inu told him the user needs to knead the chakra inside their body and convert it into fire. Then they need to expel a large stream of the fire from their mouth. The stream should be drawn into a spiral when the user expands their stomach, which then engulfs the target in a blazing vortex of fire.

This was the hardest technique Naruto had ever tried to learn, but he was determined to get it done before he turned ten.

His taijutsu training had proved fruitful, his speed had allowed the style to become truly deadly. Inu-sensei that there would be very few experienced genin who could now give Naruto a run for his money. Back at the academy, Neji no only ever one the rare one out of five fights against Naruto when the sparred. This did nothing to prevent him from always talking down to the orphan though, something that pissed off our resident red head and vexed him. The only other student who got Naruto to work up a sweat during taijutsu training was Lee. Ever since he started learning the Goken, the kid had turned into a taijutsu monster.

Since Naruto was always eating healthy, and he trained his muscles so much he had a small growth spurt making him some where in the middle for height amongst his classmates now. He was standing at four foot eight inches, Lee was the tallest boy in the class being at five feet tall.

Naruto still wore the same style of uniform of what was originally given to him, but he had traded the blue out for all dark brown now. He replaced his white shinobi tape with a black alternative, and kept his shinobi sandals black as well. He had started to wear his red hair in the same style as the Yondaime Hokage, who after ANBU operatives, was who his idols were. IF he had a successful career in ANBU, he could see himself trying to become Hokage as well and added that goal to his dreams as well, but ANBU was still the priority to him.

Naruto expected the next few months to be nerve wracking, he would soon officially meet his Inu-sensei, and be allowed to get to know his mentor. He was truly looking forward to that day, and until then, he planned to train as hard as possible to make the man as proud of him as possible. Being promised higher level training had kindled another fire within Naruto. This fire was pushing him harder than before, forcing him to get better and better at using the techniques he already knew, trying to keep up with Inu during spars.

The next few months promised to be a slay fest indeed for our young shinobi friend.

A/N: List of techniques for Naruto;

Academy Three

Great Fireball

Phoenix sage fire

Dragon Fire

Shadow Shuriken/Kunai

Mist Service no Jutsu

Demonic Illusion: Hell viewing technique

Demonic Illusion: False surroundings technique

Current exercises

Chakra control up to water walking.

250 laps around the training grounds

1000 of everything else with 200 pull ups

Taijutsu: Academy Style

Rising Shadow Style


	7. Slay Fest

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: So, a recap, Naruto is doing training that is much more intensive than his previous years of training. As always, I do not own Naruto, if you see an OC then obviously, they do, unless I get permission from another author to use a couple of theirs.

As for the foreshadowing I put in earlier to get Naruto to graduate before Neji, TenTen, and Lee, I just didn't like where the story was going inside of my head at that time.

By the end of the last chapter, Naruto is nine years old, and it is now February by the close. The closer we get to when canon starts the more, I hope I will be able to write longer chapters.

I got over 6k words on this one guys! It took a while, but i got there.

Chapter Seven: Slay Fest

Another two months had passed by for Naruto. He was currently sitting through his class in the academy. Iruka-sensei was going over the academy jutsu again.

"Ok everyone, now let's run through the last jutsu for the day and we can head outside for some taijutsu sparring and weapons training." Iruka announced to the class. "Everyone maintain a line and once you make it to me perform the clone no jutsu with at least two copies of yourself."

Naruto and the other students let out a chorus of "Hai sensei!" and proceeded to follow the Chunin instructor's request. Soon enough the line was thinning out as everyone got to practice the jutsu. Every here and there a student wouldn't be able to perform the jutsu properly, but instead of being ridiculed, they were given notes to help with improving their technique from Iruka and Ebisu-sensei. After a good amount of time, the people Naruto associated with made it to the front.

"Ok Lee, you know the drill. Just try your best and we will see if you have improved any from your last attempt." Iruka encouraged the dead last student of this year.

"Hai sensei! If I should fail to master this justu, then I shall run one-hundred laps around the academy on my hands!" Lee passionately cried to the ceiling on the classroom. This prompted everyone present to sweat drop just a little bit. Lee had become very eccentric ever since he started training in taijutsu under Might Guy.

"That's nice Lee, but could you just attempt the jutsu now?" Iruka requested, a tic mark on his forehead indicating that he was beginning to become annoyed with the boy, there were three other students left.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei! Tiger, boar, ox, dog! Clone no jutsu!" Lee shouted as he gave his best effort in performing the jutsu for the class.

At the end of Lee's hand seal sequence, a cloud of smoke surrounded the central floor of the classroom causing a few nearby students to start coughing. When the smoke cleared, Lee was the only thing standing in the center of the room, an indication that the boy had failed to perform the jutsu correctly.

Iruke just looked at his student sadly. He tried so very hard to overcome his deficiency when it came to his chakra coils, but there was only so much he could do. Lee's grades in taijutsu, weapons training, and the academics were the only things keeping him afloat at the dead last level in the class. Come time for the final exam, if Lee missed one too many questions on the written test, or missed one kunai too many, he wouldn't even be able to graduate.

"Well Lee, good attempt as always. My only advice for you is to just try some more chakra control exercises to see if you can expand your coils. Who knows, by the time the final test comes along you may just have the academy three down pat." The sensei tried to encourage.

At this point Ebisu-sensei decided to chime in on the happenings of the classroom. "I agree with Iruka on this Lee, perhaps more chakra control will help you out. Why don't you stay after class and I will tutor you on the leaf balancing exercise to see if we can get you to advance any at all?"

Lee got excited at the opportunity to try and improve himself and was about to respond in the affirmative when the student behind him decided to saddle himself into the conversation.

"Why do you bother with this dead last loser at all Sensei's?" Neji interjected. "This fool has no talent as a shinobi. He will only be a risk to the lives of his comrades out on missions. That much is clear, fate has deemed him incapable of becoming a true shinobi." The arrogant Hyuga announced loudly for the entire class to hear.

This had become a more and more common occurrence, especially with how Naruto had ended up eclipsing Neji the closer they got to graduation. He had become spiteful after losing his rookie of the year title to some orphan, and the elder's back at the clan compound had made it clear that they were not happy he was being beaten out by an upstart.

Since Naruto was the top of the class, and always just ignored him when he deemed his time worthy of insulting the red head, he eventually found a new outlet for his frustrations. Unfortunately for Lee, that outlet was himself. Neji now took every opportunity he could to insult Lee and demean him.

This only ever prompted Lee to try even harder in the shinobi disciplines, but he had yet to defeat Neji in a taijutsu spar at all. The only one who ever had or ever could beat Neji out was Naruto, but Neji just pretended that he never suffered a defeat from our resident mini ANBU.

Iruka and Ebisu had been getting more and more frustrated with their student insulting his own classmate, especially one of the few who tried so hard. They couldn't understand it as it went against a lot of the Leaf village's principles of teamwork and helping one another.

Iruka decided to put a stop to the bullying, especially since it was so blatant and in front of the instructors no less.

"Neji, how many times must we go over this? You cannot just insult your fellow classmates for trying their best. Everyone is different, and not always blessed with the capabilities to do well in somethings in life. Lee is ranked third in the class when it comes to taijutsu incase you have forgotten, just behind yourself in the number two spot I might add." Iruka reprimanded the boy.

This comment about Neji being second to someone only caused a sneer to appear on his face. He still could not comprehend how someone who started off as the class's dead last the first couple of months in the academy had become the rookie of the year. Before the instructors were changed, that spot had steadfastly belonged to himself, and then ever since that damn no-named loser had slowly caught up to him, and eventually beaten him. It conflicted with his view of fate far more than he was comfortable with.

"And it is obvious that the person in the top spot must be a cheat if he can beat out a Hyuga in anything taijutsu related. We are the premier taijutsu experts in the Elemental Nations and everyone knows this as fact. The notion that that loser of an Uzumaki is the holder of the number one spot is simply absurd." Neji ranted out.

This comment got a lot of gasps throughout the classroom. Everyone else, although their parents told them to stay away from Naruto, respected the boy's prowess as a shinobi in training. They weren't oblivious to what the boy could do, they had all sparred with him numerous times over the years, and he had always stomped over everyone he fought excluding Neji. They also had caught onto the fact that their first instructors had been completely unfair to Naruto and must have just simply hated him for something his parents may have done. After all, they were all told to avoid him, and he was an orphan, so the rest of the class just assumed he was the child of enemy shinobi that the Hokage let be raised in the village after he was orphaned. Neji was the only Genin hopeful who could not see nor accept this fact of life. This comment also prompted Naruto to respond, something he rarely ever did in class.

"So, the second best isn't happy with me, is he?" Naruto said this after silently appearing over Neji's shoulder. This caused the older boy to flinch and to spin around to face the red head. "If you are so sure about your taijutsu being better than my own, how about you and I be sparring partners after ninjutsu training. What do you say to that, second best?" The whole time while speaking, Naruto just slowly let a smirk make its way to his face.

Everyone was stunned. Naruto never got riled up by what any of the others said to him. He always preferred to keep to himself, occasionally only ever talking to Lee or the sensei's. Neji, in his blind arrogance quickly agreed to the proposed face off. "I agree no name. Then all will see you for the loser that you are."

Iruka has had enough of the peacock show after this and decided to intervene. "Easy you two. You can go up against each other, but for now, lets get the show moving. Naruto, can you please get back in line behind TenTen and allow Neji to execute the jutsu so we can finish quickly?" he announced.

"Of course, Iruka-sensei, I apologize for the disturbance." Naruto respectfully replied. Inu-sensei had drilled into him a sense of respect for those in the teaching profession, as well as for those above him in rank.

After this, the last three who needed to perform the jutsu quickly nailed it and the class was ushered outside for taijutsu sparring. Over the course of the next hour, Naruto just smirked over at Neji whenever he caught the white eyed Hyuga glaring in his direction. Normally he wouldn't care about the arrogant pricks posturing, but he had been especially getting on his nerves lately. Today, he was going to completely humiliate the asshole back into the first year of the academy.

Soon enough, if had come down to being just Naruto and Neji left, purposely saved for last by Ebisu sensei who was holding the clipboard with names while Iruka refereed. "Neji Hyuga will now face off against Naruto Uzumaki. Will you two please make your way to the center of the ring please." Ebisu-sensei announced.

The whole training yard got so quiet you could head a pin drop. All the students had been anticipating this match. The two top students duking it out was always a sight to behold.

Naruto and Neji made their way to the center of the ring and faced each other. Noticing that the boys were stuck in a glare match, he tried to grab their attention. "For the final match of the day, we have Neji versus Naruto. No weapons are allowed, and neither are any jutsu. This is a purely taijutsu spar. Do both fighters understand?"

A response of "Obviously" and a "Hai sensei" were heard from the two students, a guess as to which was which.

"Good, now both fighters give the symbol of combat, and bow to your opponent." Iruka instructed.

Naruto complied without complaint, and Neji responded with barely a nod of his head.

'That's probably the best we will get out of him.' Iruka thought to himself with a frown directed at the Hyuga. A blatant sign of disrespect for your fellow student and future comrade did not sit well with the young Chunin instructor.

"Very well, let the match. Begin!" Iruka announced with a knife hand cutting through the air to signal the start of the contest of fists.

Naruto immediately slid into a stance that no one else at the academy had seen him take before. Naruto was known as being a genius when it came to the academy style. He knew it all the way up to the advanced forms that wouldn't be covered until their last year. This one differed in that he seemed lighter on his feet as opposed to the academy's lower, more grounded stance. Naruto appeared to be balanced on the balls of his feet and was bouncing slightly between feet, and his hands were held in front of him with his palms loosely held open.

Neji took notice to this and sneered. "Do you think a new fighting style will suit you any better you fool? You cannot defeat the Gentle Fist style in close quarters combat."

"That's why you rarely ever defeat me in taijutsu battles, now is it Neji-chan." Naruto responded with a smirk and a condescending tone. This once again shocked the other students, Naruto didn't believe in trash talking usually.

'I am sick of this pricks shit, I'm pulling the kunai out of his ass today if it is the last thing I do.' Naruto thought to himself.

In response to the jibe, Neji just sneered and activated his Byakugan eyes. "That's it upstart, I am going to tear you apart!" and with a slide into the Gentle fist's basic stance, Neji rushed forward to engage Naruto and close off his tenketsu. "Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms!" he announced once he reached the waiting red head and proceeded to try and strike him. Try being the key word, Naruto was just slipping past all the strikes like his body was water. He did this by slightly stepping backwards and redirecting the palm strikes. Naruto was also whacking Neji's forearms with two knuckles every time he deflected a strike.

By the time Neji had reached the end of his family's technique, his hands were feeling numb. Neji growled and tried to finish the technique with at least one good hit but was slammed in the chin with a palm heel strike after Naruto decided to go on the offensive and slip into his guard. The strike rattled Neji's jaw shut and prompted him to fall flat on his back from the blow. 'How was he able to avoid all my attacks, how could he hit ME!?' Neji thought to himself as he tried to get back up into a fighting stance. Naruto was just standing in his ready stance, waiting for Neji to get back up or yield.

"Wasn't that one of the great Hyuga's best taijutsu techniques Neji-chan?" Naruto prodded with that smirk still sitting on his face. He was enjoying riling up the bastard at this point, it was entertaining. "How did you end up on the ground? Did you mess up? Oh, I know." He continued, slowly slipping into a menacing frown as Neji finally got back to his feet. "I must have cheated to be able to slip into your guard and defeat your technique, right? It is the only way an almighty Hyuga could lose to some no named orphan after all." Naruto let out with a growl.

This was extremely out of character for Naruto. He was usually so calm and collected. Neji must have really pissed him off for the last time. 'This arrogant ass is getting what's coming to him today, that is for sure.' Naruto thought.

"You got to do your attack, now I get to do mine, and I'll even finish this fight and humiliate you quickly and save you some shame." He said to the boy across from him. Right after he said that, he pulled his chakra back from his training weights to give him a faster burst of speed, and quickly sprinted into Neji's guard faster than he could react.

Upon reaching the Hyuga, Naruto had to dodge an instinctual palm strike from Neji but he just did a slip to the outside of the blow and got Neji into a wristlock. After securing the wrist, he kneed the back of Neji's leg while using his left arm to apply pressure to his tricep, and quickly pinned Neji to the dirt. With the Hyuga struggling underneath him, Naruto spoke. "So almighty Hyuga, do you yield?"

"Never you fool, I refuse to lose to some no named upstart!" Neji shouted, writhing on the ground.

"Hmm, so be it Neji-chan, I gave you a chance." Naruto responded. He then got ready to finish his pinned opponent.

Iruka and Ebisu took notice of this and got ready to intervene, but then to their shock and the rest of the students, faster than they could blink the heard a resounding snapping sound in the yard, followed by wails of pain.

Naruto had taken the wristlock into an armbar in that time between the blink of an eye and had promptly given Neji a spiral fracture on his right arm. Everyone was just left gaping open mouthed at the scene before them. Naruto had just literally destroyed the Hyuga without getting hit once and had done so when Neji had tried to use one of his clans coveted techniques. After beating the boy, and getting a refusal of surrender, Naruto had broken the other students arm without hesitation.

With Iruka and Ebisu, they were thinking just about the same thing as the other. 'Who in the world taught an academy student THAT style, and how the hell is he so good at it already!?' they were asking themselves.

Neither of the two knew the style first hand, they had just seen some of their comrades using it in friendly spars. Most Chunin instructors would practice with their friends in ANBU when they had a chance, just to make sure they themselves weren't getting rusty, and could improve to be able to secure their Jonin promotions.

They both knew one thing however after witnessing Naruto literally stomp on Neji. Naruto had been receiving training outside of the academy, there was no doubt about that now. The only question was who was training the Uzumaki, and just what else Naruto knew that they were not aware of.

The wails of Neji had eventually shook them out of their stupor, and as the adults present at the scene, assumed their respective roles.

"Winner of the match is Naruto Uzumaki! Ebisu-sensei, would you please bring Neji to the infirmary so that they can fit him for a cast and reset his arm? Thank you." Iruka announced. Ebisu complied and helped the crying boy back up and led him away from the training yard.

"Now that taijutsu training is over, let us head over to the target area and start with shuriken!" Iruka said, trying to get everyone out of their shock of what Naruto just did to their classmate.

'I am going to have to ask Hokage-sama about this.' Iruka thought to himself.

With all of the students lining up in front of targets, he put his thoughts in the back of his mind and got back to teaching.

-Break-

Later that day in the Hokage's office.

Iruka had just gotten to the large oaken doors of his village leader's office. The ANBU guard gave him a nod and promptly opened the door to allow him entry.

The wrinkled Sandaime was in the corner of the office, looking out the window towards the Hokage monument, smoking on his pipe. Upon hearing his academy instructor entering he turned and greeted the young man with a smile.

"Iruka-kun, how good to see you. I trust that you are enjoying your stay at the academy still, yes?" Hiruzen asked. "And please, come have a seat." He gestured towards a chair as he made his way behind his desk and sat in his own.

"Thank you Hokage-sama, and yes, the academy is going just fine. I enjoy teaching my class very much. I am here today though to bring up some concerns and questions I have involving one of my students though." Iruka responded.

This got Hiruzen to raise his eyebrows. "Oh, and which student would this be?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, Hokage-sama, we had an incident during taijutsu sparring, and Naruto revealed something troubling."

This immediately got the aged Sarutobi's attention. Naruto really was like a grandson to him, he saw the boy several times a week for ramen or just to hang out in the office when the boy was on a break from his training. "What happened with Naruto-kun, Iruka?" he asked worriedly.

Iruka took notice of the affectionate honorific at the end of Naruto's name but didn't mention it. "Naruto literally stomped on Neji Hyuga during his spar and proceeded to snap Neji's arm when he refused to give up in their match. Naruto reacted before either Ebisu or I could intervene. It was completely out of character, but Naruto also displayed something different that the academy style taijutsu, and that is my main concern Hokage-sama."

Now this certainly got Hiruzen's attention. 'It would appear Naruto-kun dipped into his knowledge of the Rising Shadow style to make quick work of the Hyuga. Now I know what the concern is, Naruto used ANBU level techniques against a student. I wonder what got Naruto-kun so riled up?' "Well, what style would you say he used Iruka-kun? Did you recognize it?" he asked, feigning ignorance to the situation.

Iruka took a breath, not sure how to word this. "He. Well Hokage-sama, I think one of your ANBU operatives, or a retiree are training Naruto in the Rising Shadow style. That style is simply too advanced for a Genin to know so that begs the question of how an academy student is so knowledgeable in it. I knew that Naruto was talented in taijutsue once he already knew most of the academy style once I took on the role of his teacher, but this is too much. He broke a fellow student's arm today, and it doesn't look like he regrets it."

"Well Iruka-kun, I know exactly how Naruto is so knowledgeable in that style, it is because he has been trained in it for a number of years." The Hokage responded.

To say that Iruka was shocked would be an understatement. "Are you telling me that you knew about this the entire time Hokage-sama?" he questioned in disbelief.

Hiruzen let out a long sigh after this. "Why yes, I am Iruka-kun. You see, back when Naruto was just six years old, I found him on the streets being assaulted by villagers. ANBU were with me when we rescued him, and ever since then, Naruto has wanted to be just like my operatives. I believe it is because they can be respected shinobi, but never have to show their faces. Naruto knows his fellow villagers despise him, and he figures he can garner their respect through his actions, so long as they do not know it is really him that did anything. So ever since that day, I have allowed one of my operatives to tutor Naruto-kun during his spare time."

This truly shocked Iruka. 'If Naruto has been receiving training from an ANBU for over three years, just how good is he!?'

"What I want to know though Iruka-kun, is what got Naruto so angry that he would purposely injure a fellow student? He is usually so calm and collected, a sign of his ANBU training." Hiruzen asked with curiosity.

"Well you see Hokage-sama, Neji called Naruto a no named cheat again after Rock Lee failed to make a single clone during jutsu training. Naruto took serious offense to that this time and challenged Neji right then and there to be sparring partners today. During the spar, Neji attacked with the Eight Trigrams, but he couldn't even touch Naruto, and Naruto just proceeded to destroy him instantly."

'My, my Naruto-kun, to be defeating the genius of the Hyuga clan in taijutsu. I knew you were the top of your class, a sign of all your hard work paying off, but I didn't expect you to be this good. Just what has Kakashi been showing this boy?' Hiruzen kept to himself. "Well, be that as it may Iruka-kun, what seems to be the issue? Naruto has my permission to be learning those techniques after all."

Iruka wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Well Hokage-sama, I just wasn't sure if you were aware. Now that I know that you are, I guess there isn't one. But if I may ask, even with Naruto's past, why would you approve such advanced training for the boy, especially after what happened with Itachi Uchiha?" he questioned.

'Not that situation brought up to haunt me again, I get this enough from the council.' Hiruzen mused again. "Well, you are aware that Naruto is our Jinchuuriki. Naruto is expected to become an A-Ranked ninja at the very least. He is to be a deterrent of war. Naruto asked for the training, and as the leader of this village, I would be a fool to let that dedication and talent go to waste. It was also a good way to keep Danzo away from the boy. This way, Naruto is training to be one of my ANBU, and not one of that man's secret Root agents that he thinks I don't know about."

"I see Hokage-sama." Said Iruka with a frown. "So, the boy truly is to be viewed as a weapon for the village then?" he asked with some distaste.

This prompted Hiruzen to give Iruka a hard look. "Do not make a mistake Iruka-kun, I love the boy like a grandson. But he has his role in this village, just like all my shinobi do. He is willing to become an ANBU, who am I to hold him back? This village is lucky that I could find Naruto a mentor before they ruined that boy and any chances of him loving the village, now, he is determined to defend it behind a mask. He wants to be a true shinobi and I won't fault him that. I only ask that you don't fault me for letting the boy try and achieve his dreams. I did not purposely put him down this path, it is one that he has chosen, and one I could not be prouder of." He told the Chunin seriously.

Iruka got sheepish at this, a bit embarrassed to anger his leader. "My apologies Hokage-sama, I was just worried for my student. I did not mean any offense."

Hiruzen smiled at this. "Don't worry Iruka-kun, no harm done, I can't fault a teacher for worrying over a student. Now on to other matters, how do you feel you are coming along towards a Jonin rank?"

Now Iruka had a caught in headlights look. "Say what!?"

-Break-

While this was happening, Naruto was back at training ground seven with Inu.

"So, you broke the Hyuga's arm?" Kakashi asked his student, trying to sound mean and menacing, but internally laughing at the mental image.

Naruto just met the man's eyes with a blank stare. "I was getting sick of the pricks holier than thou attitude and decided to take him down a peg. The bastard called me a no named cheat. I was not going to stand for that. It was easy once I disengaged my weights. Fighting without an extra thirty pounds on each limb really makes a difference." The boy responded seriously.

Kakashi finally did chuckle at this. "Relax Naruto-kun. I am not angry, I'm impressed you decimated a Hyuga so efficiently. Just goes to show what an amazing instructor I am. Be that as it may, you did unveil the Rising Shadow style, and I can promise your instructors took note of it and are asking the Hokage about it as we speak. As punishment for letting one of your secrets slip, I am upping your training some more. Add another ten pounds to each of your limbs, it is time for a taijutsu spar with me." He told the boy with a menacing grin that he could not see.

'Oh boy.' Naruto gulped. "Hai sensei" he responded as he resigned himself to his fate.

-Break-

Timeskip to August.

Naruto was being observed by Inu going through his Ninjutsu arsenal. He had already run through his C-ranked techniques and was trying out a new C-ranked genjutsu before moving onto trying to complete his one B-Ranked fire ninjutsu.

This technique was called the Sly mind affect no jutsu and caused the one under its affects to run around in circles. If it doesn't get detected by the victim, it can cause exhaustion both physically and mentally as it prevents one from reaching their desired destination.

'Snake, boar, bird, snake! Sly mind affect no jutsu!' Naruto thought as he ran through the sequence and tried to apply the jutsu onto Inu.

Kakashi noticed his surroundings change slightly and detected the application of foreign chakra on him. He quickly broke out of it with a burst of chakra.

"Good Job Naruto-kun, you got that one down pat as well now. Why don't you try the Blast Wave wild Dance no jutsu now?" Kakashi encouraged his young charge.

"Yes sensei." Was the response as Naruto turned to target a training log.

'Here goes, Tiger, snake, boar, dog, boar, snake, bird, monkey, tiger! Blast Wave wild Dance no jutsu!' Naruto screamed in his mind as he developed the chakra necessary for the technique. After building up the spiral blaze in his stomach, Naruto unleashed the jutsu. A small vortex of flame came out of his mouth towards the log, consumed it, and continued towards the forest.

Kakashi saw this and decided to put the fire out. A rapid hand seal sequence later and a giant water dragon went off and turned the burning vortex into a cloud of steam.

Once it cleared away and proved no more flames were present, Kakashi spoke up.

"Well, you have most of the technique down now. Now it is just a matter of control and making it more powerful. The second stage of your fire style training would probably help with that, but it is not something I want you working on until after you graduate. That goes the same for your water style. You already know far more than most Chunin now. I want you to just master all the elemental ninjutsu you have at this point. I may teach you some harder Genjutsu over our last year of training together, but that will probably be it." He told the red head.

"Yes sensei, I know its not a matter of how many jutsu you know, but one of being a master at what you do know. I am a little bummed out that I won't learn any water jutsu or water manipulation training until I am older." Naruto replied with a small sigh. He truly enjoyed ninjutsu training and would love to take a crack at mastering water. He took most of everything Inu ever said to him to heart though, he obviously knew best.

"Still though, you know enough to get you a Chunin promotion a few months being out of the academy, I promise you that much Naruto. Better yet, do you know what today is?" Kakashi asked with an unseen eye smile.

"Umm, its August first isn't it sensei?' Naruto asked carefully. He wasn't sure where the older man was getting at with this.

"Exactly, it's the first of August. Now, what did I tell you would happen in August of this year Naruto-kun?" Inu asked wryly.

After that it finally clicked in Naruto's head. "Oh! Is today the day you retire from ANBU sense!?" Naruto asked excitedly. He had been waiting a very long time to officially meet his sensei. After today he would be able to meet his mentor get too know him better after this.

"That's right my student, and Hokage-sama has already decommissioned me as a Captain, as of today I am now a Jonin of the Hidden Leaf village. I guess it is time I formerly introduce myself isn't it?" the older man asked as he moved to take off his dog mask. After pulling it away it revealed a young man who looked to still be under the age of twenty-five. It was hard to tell, since he wore a black cloth mask over most of his face covering up to his nose. He also had a Leaf headband covering his left eye. "Hello Naruto Uzumaki, my name is Kakashi Hatake, the last member, and clan head to the Hatake clan here in the Leaf village. I have been your sensei for these near four years now. Do you have any questions for me?" the now properly introduced Kakashi asked Naruto with an eye smile.

Naruto was excited to meet his sensei after all this time. "I didn't know you were the head of a clan sensei! How long have you been a Jonin in ANBU though if you don't mind me asking?"

"Hmm, no its fine. I made Jonin when I was twelve years old. I had graduated the academy at five, and Chunin at six. It was war time though, and the village needed as many shinobi as possible out in the field. The standard for passing the Genin test was lower back then due to the need to bolster our forces so don't dwell on that. I got into ANBU not too far from being thirteen. I had lost both of my teammates during the war and used ANBU as a coping tool." Kakashi replied with a far away look in his eyes.

Naruto was amazed by this, and saddened. "I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei, I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories for you."

"Its alright Naruto-kun, but on to happier topics, I told you that I would help you learn a weapon of your choice. What would you like to learn?" asked Kakashi.

"Well what did you use when you were in ANBU sensei?" was the response he got.

"Well." Kakashi said as he reached behind him and pulled a small blade from a sheath attached to the small of his back. "My own father taught me to use a tanto. I guess if you think about it this would be the best weapon for me to teach you to use. You sure this is what you want to learn? Or would you prefer a slightly longer blade to give you more reach?"

"Hmm, the tanto should be more than enough Kakashi-sensei. It is actually known by you so it would leave the best instruction, and I hear it is used by most Leaf shinobi."

"Very well. If that is the case, I guess we can get started."

And so Kakashi started teaching Naruto on how the ANBU use the tanto for close quarters combat and assassinations.

-Break-

Timeskip

One year later, and one month away from the Genin Graduation exam for Naruto. We find our red headed friend, now nearly eleven years old, and almost a Genin. Over the past year, he has spent most of it refining all Jutsu, trying to master them all. Currently his schedule consisted of waking up bright and early, and training at five in the morning for his physical exercise. He routinely would up his weights whenever he got back to the reps his sensei set out for him to do. Now because of this, his weights were set to a staggering One-hundred pounds on each of his limbs. This got his normal speed up to a ridiculous level for a soon to be Genin Graduate. Kakashi ranked is speed right now with the weights on to be high Chunin level. Whenever he took them off, this set him to low Jonin level speeds. A huge accomplishment for one so young and not even a shinobi yet.

The rest of his mornings, and some of his afternoons were spent in class at the academy. He still retained the rookie of the year spot for his class. After the academy, he still made his way over to training ground seven every day to work on his weapons training. Kakashi said he was adept at using the Tanto that was gifted to him for his tenth birthday. It was a replica to his sensei's White Light Chakra Sabre, but it didn't have the same abilities, it was jut made of chakra conducting metals so that Naruto could eventually use his fire element in conjunction with it. When using Kunai and shuriken on targets, Naruto never missed. He had taken to using ninja wire with his shuriken as well, considering one of his fire jutsus, and had gotten his coordination up to a level that would make an Uchiha proud.

He had also picked up on using senbon. They were light, and hard to detect. These were great for slowing an opponent down, and Naruto knew that as an ANBU he would have to do a lot of capture alive missions.

He had learned another Genjutsu from his sensei as well over the course of the year. This newest one was a B-rank. It was the Demonic Illusion: Tree Bind Death no jutsu. The user disappears from plain sight in a mist like fashion in order to sneak up on an opponent. Then a fast-growing mirage of a tree snares the victim in its clutches so that the user can slit the opponents throat, that, or it can be used to scare an opponent into giving up vital information.

As for Ninjutsu, Naruto had been just trying to get better at executing his jutsu, faster and faster and getting more comfortable with the memorized hand seal sequences. Kakashi drilled into him a sense of having fast hand seals, as it could be a matter of life or death in a battlefield situation. He had gotten his B-ranked fire jutsu up to a combat level form, but it wasn't as big or controlled as he wanted it to be.

Taijutsu wise, Naruto would routinely spar with Kakashi on top of a pond of water, using the water walking chakra control exercise to keep him afloat. Getting a head start on how to do this would mean a lot for Naruto's career as a Genin, as it was one of the last things a Genin squad is taught before they usually take on the Chunin exams.

All in all, the past year had been a blast for Naruto. He and Kakashi would sometimes just hang out without any training attached. This gave Naruto a much-needed bond that he didn't know that he was missing. He had someone besides the Hokage that he truly looked up to.

Naruto was very confident with the Genin exams approaching. There was no doubt in his mind that he would pass. Then after that and being plagued by D-Rank missions for a few months and a few C-Ranks, he would be allowed to compete in the Chunin exams. He honestly couldn't wait.

With most of his training as an academy student complete, all that's left is graduation.


	8. Graduation

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: Alright guys, I can't believe the number of followers this story has gotten so far. I am glad you guys like it so far if you have been sticking with it. Now I need some creative decisions from you guys.

Just post a review with who you want the pairings to be, I only ask that you keep it close to Naruto's age group. I don't want any statutory rape cases in my story.

So far, only one person has voted, so at this time, Ino Yamanaka is the lovely character who might end up with our Uzumaki. Personally, I want to know what you guys think of Karin or Tayuya?

Chapter Eight: Graduation

Today was finally the day. Naruto had been training relentlessly for nearly five years now, all in the hopes of becoming a skilled shinobi. With thanks to his sensei Kakashi, he had become extremely fluent in most shinobi disciplines. His taijutsu, by knowing two styles, was diverse and gave him enough flexibility in a fight. He knew the very style of the Leaf village's prestigious ANBU Black Ops, and over the years Kakashi had taught him to use it to great effect. Constant spars after the academy gave Naruto the experience he needed to learn to properly utilize this fighting style. Kakashi placed his skills in taijutsu somewhere near a high Chunin, mostly thanks to the speed and power all his weight training had afforded him. Those weights were currently sitting at one-hundred and five pounds each, he had upped them one more time earlier this week. With these weights off, Kakashi told him that he bridged the gap to low Jonin levels in taijutsu. He had never lost a match to Neji Hyuga in a spar at the academy ever again after that brutal beatdown he had dished out. The cat was out of the bag about his skill.

In weapons, the only person in his own graduating class that eclipsed him was TenTen. He had slightly better accuracy than she did when it came to kunai, shuriken, and senbon, but the girl had so much more versatility as she used what seemed to be every weapon on the spectrum. Being adopted by a weapons smith may have a huge influence on that kunoichi's shinobi preferences, but who was Naruto to judge? She was an ok student in his own mind, if only she could get over the prick of a Hyuga who he knew she would be on a team with. Kakashi placed his skills with thrown weapons to be about average for a Chunin, but his shuriken skills might be considered high, due to his use of shinobi wire.

When it came to the tanto that Kakashi-sensei had gifted him, he was rated at a high Genin level. It was to be expected, it was the thing he had worked on the least in comparison to all his other training. A tanto didn't really require a kenjutsu style, it mostly just augmented one's taijutsu, and luckily for him it went well for both the academy style, and his Rising Shadow style. Both were made with tantos in mind since that was the most common weapon used by Leaf shinobi.

In terms of Genjutsu, that had really been the biggest surprise to Naruto and Kakashi. Originally, Kakashi thought that Naruto would have no talent in the art. His larger than normal chakra reserves being the key reason. Kakashi knew that this was because of the Kyubbi no kitsune, or the Nine-tailed Fox if you will. This secret was still being kept from the red head. Kakashi and Hiruzen had just told him that his parents must have been a pair of powerful shinobi. This may have been true, but they both knew Naruto's reserves were far too large still for his age. With these larger reserves, the two older shinobi had thought that Naruto would have serious trouble with Genjutsu and lower level techniques. This carried over to any chakra control exercises as well. Little did they know, that by getting Naruto started on taking the shinobi disciplines and chakra control seriously at such a young age, they had rescued him from having terrible control for the rest of his life. If Naruto had been left without supervision, his chakra would have continued to grow, without him ever being able to get used to siphoning his chakra properly for specific techniques. By starting while his reserves were still relatively small, his control grew with his reserves, and allowed him better control of his Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu. Kakashi could confidently label Naruto as high Chunin in terms of the illusionary art. I mean after all, the kid knew a B-ranked Genjutsu, and had gotten good at using it in spars.

Where Naruto truly shined though was what all jinchuuriki were meant to be. Being a Ninjutsu specialist. With his large reserves, and his control over his fire element, Naruto was easily low Jonin level already. He had a neat little repertoire of jutsu that he could use to roast his opponents alive.

With all of this, Naruto was going to do just fine today during the graduation, and he had no worries whatsoever. He was ready to take the day and claim his headband, or his hitai-ate as it was traditionally called.

Our young shinobi was currently sitting in the back of his academy classroom, waiting for the new instructor to call him into the exam room. Ebisu-sensei had ended up getting a promotion to special Jonin a couple of weeks ago and was replaced by some guy named Mizuki. Naruto didn't like him much, if Iruka wasn't around, Naruto was sure this new guy would treat him the same as his first academy instructors did.

"Naruto Uzumaki! You're next." The Blueish haired Chunin finally called out.

'Well, it's time I guess.' Naruto mused to himself as he stood up and made his way down the steps and through the door to the exam room. Upon entering he saw Iruka-sensei sitting behind a desk with a clipboard and an assortment of hitai-ates in dark blue, black, brow, and gray on top. Iruka smiled upon seeing his favorite student, not that he would ever tell the boy that.

Iruka and Naruto had a kinship in that they were both orphans. Iruka had on occasion treated the red headed boy to Ichiraku Ramen whenever he was particularly impressive during school. Naruto had a sharp mind, and paid attention during the history, strategy, analytical, math, and science classes. Iruka viewed Naruto as the perfectly well-rounded student, just as he prided himself on being the perfectly well-rounded shinobi. Iruka made it his business to know at least an average amount in all shinobi disciplines.

"Good morning Naruto-kun, are you ready for your graduation test?" the scarred Chunin asked with a small smile.

"Of course, Iruka-sensei, we already completed the written, weapons, and taijutsu portions, what makes you think I'll be nervous about the Jutsu?" Naruto responded and asked with a sly smile.

Iruka chuckled at this. All the instructors here knew that the exam was just a formality in terms of Naruto Uzumaki becoming a Genin. He was the rookie of the year, as displayed by all his grades up until this point. Iruka had already graded the students on all the other test portions. Naruto sat above Neji by about three points in his average, with Naruto having a perfect score so far.

"Wonderful Naruto, now, you know the three Jutsu, in order of Henge, Kawarimi, and finally Bunshin, you may begin your exam." Iruka announced.

"Hai sensei." Was all the response before Naruto began going through hand signs. A second later an exact copy of Iruka was standing in the center of the room.

"Good job Naruto, as usual I can't spot any flaws." Iruka commented as Naruto swapped places with a chair off to the side of the room. "Excellent Naruto! I didn't know you learned to do kawarimi without hand signs, I'll mark you down for extra credit for that." The Chunin said as he made a note by Naruto's grades so far.

Naruto released his Henge at this point and swapped places again with the chair. Now back in the middle of the room he ran through the hand signs for the Bunshin and soon four Narutos were in the room.

"Good job Naruto, perfect clones. Congratulations, you pass the Genin examination with a score of one-hundred and three for your seal-less kawarimi. Please come and select a hitai-ate of your preference." Iruka told the red head with pride and a smile.

Naruto made his way to the desk and chose one of the dark brown hitai-ates and bowed to his senseis as he made his way out of the room.

'That boy is going to go places, I think I'll treat him to ramen later if I can find him.' Iruka thought as Naruto left.

Someone else in the room wasn't as please with Naruto doing so well on the exams.

'Damn that demon brat. How can everyone be ok with that monster parading around as one of our shinobi! There is nothing I can do about it now. I may as well leave this village. It is just a matter of how to do that. It could take years of planning if I don't want to be tracked as a missing-nin.' Were the dark thoughts of the other instructor in the room.

-Break-

Back in the large classroom, all the Genin who had passed were waiting for their instructors to return. Naruto had assumed his seat once again and took note of who had passed. Neji, Lee, and TenTen had all made it apparently. Lee was being taken as an apprentice, he knew that much, that was why he could skip the Ninjutsu portion of the exam, defaulting to the lowest possible passing grade one could achieve on the exam, but passing, nonetheless.

Naruto noted that about fifty percent of his classmates had failed the exam. He honestly shouldn't be too surprised, he regarded the majority of the Genin hopefuls as pathetic. Naruto was just wondering who would end up on his team at the end of this all.

Eventually Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei had came back into the room. Iruka proceeded to address the graduates. "Ok everyone, congratulations on passing the exam. All of you have the next week off for you to take care of your administrative paper work at the Hokage tower. Be back here next Friday for your team assignments."

And with that all the new Genin began to file out to go and see their parents and celebrate their success.

-Break-

Naruto was currently sitting at Ichiraku Ramen with Kakashi when Iruka found him. The boy was chatting amiably with the Ayame, the chef Teuchi's daughter. Iruka still hadn't met the man who had been tutoring Naruto all these years. At this point, he was wondering way Naruto was sitting next to a Jonin.

"Hey Naruto-kun, finally found you. I should have known you would be here after the exams. How about one of your bowls be on me as congratulations?" Iruka asked the boy with a grin.

This caused Naruto and Kakashi to turn towards the man. "Iruka-sensei! You bet! Come on and have a seat." Naruto gestured to the stool on the other side of him which was open.

Iruka took the seat and greeted Ayame and Teuchi when he spotted them and then noticed that Naruto was speaking to the Jonin. "So Kakashi-sensei, how is training going to work now that I will be assigned to another Jonin? Will we even be able to still train together?" Naruto asked the silver haired Jonin with worry in his voice. At this point Iruka finally processed just who was sitting near him.

'Kakashi Hatake!? The shinobi with over a thousand copied Jutsu! Is this the man that has been tutoring Naruto-kun in the shinobi arts?' were his thoughts before Kakashi responded to the red heads questions.

"Well you see Naruto, just because you will be having another sensei doesn't mean that I can't still teach you a thing or two here and there. Once we know ho your Jonin commander will be, I'll have a talk with him and arrange something out that works. I can't just let my student fall behind, now can I?" Kakashi answered the boy with his patented eye smile.

This is when Iruka interjected himself into the conversation. "Hold on a minute, are you telling me that you, Copy Cat Kakashi, the legendary Jonin who was taught by the Yondaime Hokage, have been the one tutoring my student since before the academy!?"

This got Naruto and Kakashi by surprise. Naruto turned around and addressed his old instructor. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, I should have done introductions. Kakashi-sensei, this is Iruka Umino, he was my senior instructor throughout the academy. Iruka-sensei allow me to introduce Kakashi Hatake, he has been my tutor and mentor since just after I turned six years old. He graciously volunteered to train me in the shinobi arts after I was saved from a mob of villagers, and then expressed that I dream to one day be a member of the ANBU Black Ops."

Iruka was truly shocked that a Jonin of this caliber was the one teaching Naruto. Kakashi was a borderline S-Class shinobi who was feared throughout the Elemental Nations. It sort of all made sense at this point. If Naruto had this man instructing him since he was six years old, it was no wonder the boy was so skilled in the arts.

"It is nice to meet you Hatake-san. I assume you are as proud of our shared student as I am with him making rookie of the year?" Iruka asked after he composed himself.

"No need to be so formal with me Iruka-san, Kakashi will work just fine. As for Naruto here, I couldn't be prouder, he has come a long way from the little brat he started off as." Kakashi responded as he tousled Naruto's hair.

"Very well Kakashi-san, I am interested in finding out everything you were able to pass on to Naruto-kun here, he must have been just as good of a student for you as he was for me, he absorbed the academy curriculum like a sponge."

Little did Iruka know that the rest of this conversation was going to leave his jaw constantly sitting on the counter top of Ichiraku's.

-Break-

The following Monday saw Naruto changing into a fresh Uniform after showering, washing off all the grime and sweat that he had acquired from his morning workout. He put on a pair of dark brown ANBU styled shinobi pants and began taping his ankles up with dark green shinobi tape. He then taped his thighs up before strapping on his kunai slash shuriken holster on his right leg, and his senbon holster on his left. Kakashi-sensei had just gifted him a new pair of gray ones to add more blending colors with his uniform. He proceeded to pull on a long sleeve mesh armored shirt and cover it with a short sleeved dark brown shinobi shirt. He then used the same dark green shinobi tape to wrap up his hands and arms up to his elbows. Iruka-sensei had gifted him with a pair of gray fingerless shinobi gloves with metal plates with the Leaf symbol engraved in them. He put those on as well. He opted to wear his hitai-ate around his neck, forgoing using it in the traditional way. He had his tanto's sheath wrapped in some more of the green shinobi tape and had used some black to wrap the handle with. He strung this piece of his gear to his lower back parallel to the ground like he had seen his sensei wear many a times. After pulling on a pair of gray shinobi sandals Naruto checked himself in the mirror. His hair, still done up in respect to his idol the Yondaime, his blue cerulean eyes, and his three whisker parks per cheek. He thought he looked like a serious shinobi. He may not where the traditional colors that most Leaf shinobi did, but he felt that since they operated in the forests of the Land of Fire mostly that dark blue wasn't the best to use. Green went with the color of the leaves, and gray could blend into rocks. It made sense to him.

With being all dressed, Naruto made a quick breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon, scarfed it down, and made his way to the Hokage tower. He had to go take his photo today and start filling out some paperwork.

-Break-

Naruto was currently standing in front of Hiruzen, with the old man gazing upon him proudly. The wrinkled Sarutobi truly was amazed at the progress the boy had made in his shinobi training. Just the other night, he had finally asked Kakashi just exactly how skilled the boy really was. The detailed report was simply amazing. This led to him developing the team assignments a bit differently. Usually as rookie of the year, Naruto would get the Kunoichi of the year and the dead last on the team with him, so it would have been the Uzumaki with TenTen and Rock Lee. Hiruzen did not think that would fit anymore though, especially with Might Guy requesting his pupil Lee to remain with him. No, the Hyuga and TenTen would go to Guy. He had just the person in mind to be Naruto's instructor, and he would find some competent students to put as Naruto's teammates.

Hiruzen looked down at Naruto's ninja registration form and nodded his head in approval after spotting the professional photo. Naruto didn't even smile in it. The boy took being a shinobi too seriously sometimes. 'You would be proud Minato, and you too Kushina.' He thought to himself.

He finally decided to address the red head. "Well Naruto Uzumaki, Male, will be eleven years old on October tenth of this year, five foot one inches tall, Blood type, B, Shinobi registration number 011607. Everything seems to be in order Naruto-kun." Hiruzen addressed him with a smile. "You are the first one done completing their paperwork after graduation from your class, you did do it much faster than usual. What do you plan to do with the rest of your time before team assignments Naruto-kun?"

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head upon hearing this. "Well Hokage-jiji, I was so excited that I am finally a shinobi, I just felt like I should get all of this stuff done. As for what I will do, I guess I will just continue with training for the week, I have nothing else to do anyways."

At this point, they both heard the door to the side of the administration room slide open and somebody slip in. It turned out it was a little boy who was wearing some gray cap over his brown hair. He appeared to be around six or seven years old. He was wearing a yellow shirt with the Leaf village swirl on it and green pants with a ridiculously long blue scarf around his neck. None of this was worrying, but what did catch Naruto's attention was the fact that he had a shuriken in his hand, a real one, and was sprinting towards his Hokage with the intent to attack.

"I have you now old man! Now I'll have to be Hokage!" the boy screamed and let the shuriken loose towards the Hokage's head. In a blur, Naruto reacted and deflected the shuriken after shunshining into its path. He promptly used another to appear behind the boy with his tanto pressed to his neck. This is when someone familiar to Naruto entered the room.

"Honorable grandson are you in here?" upon spotting his charge being held at sword point Ebisu-sensei had a heart attack and freaked. "You! Unhand the Honorable grandson at once! What? Wait, is that you Naruto-san?" Now Ebisu was just confused, why was his old student threatening to slit his new one's throat. "What is going on in here Hokage-sama?" he addressed his leader who was just calmly smoking form his pipe at the administration desk.

Hiruzen just chuckled at the scene, he knew Naruto wouldn't harm the boy until he found out what the story was, and it was amusing to see his boisterous grandson be taught a very serious lesson on why it is not smart to try and attack the leader to a village. "Well you see Ebisu-kun, Konohamaru-kun here decided to try another assassination attempt on his poor old grandfather, and Naruto-kun here, like the responsible Genin he is, protected his Kage and apprehended the assassin."

"Let me go you big bully, don't you know who I am!?" Konohamaru was squirming and trying to get away from the red head with the long knife. 'Geesh, this guy is scary!'

"Yes, I do you twerp, the Hokage just told us all didn't he you daft little thing?" Naruto responded with a sly grin. "But, grandson or not, you did just try to kill the village's leader, so I believe execution is the punishment for that offense, is it not, Hokage-sama?" Naruto addressed his grandfather figure with a conspiratorial grin.

Hiruzen caught onto the prank and decided to play along and really let the lesson sink in for his actual grandson. "Why yes, it is Naruto-kun, would you do me the favor of bringing this assassin to the intelligence and interrogation department to be dealt with?"

At this point Ebisu knew what was happening as well, and just let the scene play out with amusement.

"No! Hiruzen-jiji! You wouldn't let this shinobi kill me right!? This is just a big misunderstanding. I wasn't going to hurt you!" Konohamaru began freaking out.

"Oh, my apologies, it was just a mistake I am sure." Naruto responded, taking his tanto away from the boy's throat. Konohamaru promptly fell to the floor crying in relief. He had seriously thought that he was going to die there.

The shinobi in the room were laughing at him. 'They are a bunch of meanies!'

-Break-

The end of the week finally came, and Naruto was listening to teams being called out.

Finally, Iruka-sensei had called his own name. "Team five will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Iroha Raigan, and Tekuno Ise. You will be under Tokubetsu Jonin Raido Namiashi." Naruto nodded his head at this, at least he wouldn't have to deal with the stupid Hyuga. Iroha was a back haired boy from a civilian family that was the same height as Naruto. He had black eyes and wore black cargo shorts and a blue leaf tee shirt. As far as Naruto was aware, the boy came form a civilian family and he was first generation. Tekuno was from a shinobi family, having a few cousins and uncles in the force. He had brown hair and eyes and wore a dull yellow shirt with black shinobi pants. They both scored in the middle of the upper third of the class, so Naruto guessed that he could have done much worse in ways of teammates.

While Naruto was pondering his team assignment, Iruka had finished by assigning team nine as Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and TenTen under Might Guy. He was happy for Lee, he got to stay with his original sensei.

Iruka addressed the class again after that. "Ok all of you, congratulations once again on graduating. I wish you luck in your shinobi careers, and I am proud to have taught you all. You all have a one-hour break before you need to report back here for your senseis to come and retrieve you. Dismissed."

After that, the Genin began grouping up with their teammates to go out to lunch. When Iroha and Tekuno made their way up to him, Naruto just gave them a nod each in greeting. He hadn't really interacted with many of the other students in his class.

Tekuno was the more outspoken out of the three so he decided to spark some conversation. "So Uzumaki, how does it feel being the rookie of the year? You did after all get there after being the youngest in the class."

Iroha shipped in after that. "Yeah, and what is up with that feud you have with the Hyuga prick?"

Naruto just sighed at the questions. He shouldn't be too surprised that they might want to get to know him now that they were a team. "Well, as for being the rookie, I am proud, I guess. I worked extremely hard to get good at what we do. I guess having connections in the Hokage's office helps though, I've had a Jonin tutor since I was six, that was why I always seemed so far ahead, I think. As for the Hyuga, the bastard cant get over the fact that someone who doesn't focus purely on taijutsu can be better than his pitiful clan. It's not my fault he doesn't focus on any other art but Tai." He responded.

Both of his new teammates had surprised looks on their faces. "You had a Jonin-sensei this entire time! Dude, you are sooo lucky!" Iroha exclaimed.

Tekuno nodded to that. "Yeah, that is lucky of you. No wonder you steamrolled the rest of us in the academy." He added with a chuckle. "Well, at least we are sure one of the three of us is strong. Was it Raido-sensei who taught you Naruto?"

Naruto just shook his head to this. "No, Raido-sensei and I have only run into each other a couple of times when I was visiting Hokage-jiji at the tower. I haven't been his student before today. Tokubetsu Jonin don't normally teach Genin until they are close to promotion to full Jonin last I checked though, so he is probably due for one soon considering the Hokage assigned us to him."

"Well, I hope he ends up being a good sensei, do you guys want to go grab some take out barbeque really quick and come back before sensei gets here? We have about fifty minutes left and there is a good place right down the street that I know." Iroha offered to the other two.

Both teammates nodded in the affirmative and the trio made their way out of the academy. During lunch the three kept asking random questions to try and get to know the others. So far, none of the Genin ha an issue with the others and thought they might be able to get along well enough during missions. Naruto warned them of the horror of D-Ranked missions, but they all brushed it off saying that they would just train to get to doing C-ranks.

After returning to the academy and quickly eating their lunches, the three Genin awaited their new sensei. On the very moment of the hour being up, a Brown-haired man wearing a Jonin jacket and had a wheel like scar on the left side of his face entered the classroom. The man soon announced his purpose.

"Will Team Five please follow me outside." He stated before turning back out of the room. Team Five made their way out following their supposed sensei. They continued to follow him, and he led them to the outskirts of the village. He entered a training field with a sign for Five on it, and proceeded to a rock formation, and sat himself in the middle of a rather large one. The Genin f the group copied him and formed a semi-circle around the older nin.

"Ok you three, congratulations on passing the academy tests, but that was not your Genin test, your Jonin instructors are the ones who must decide whether or not you will study under them, go into the regular shinobi corps, go back to the academy for remediation, or drop out of the shinobi program altogether." This shocked Iroha and Tekuno, Naruto had already been warned by Kakashi. Raido took notice of this.

Kakashi had already made a deal with Raido, informing him that there was no way he would fail Team Five, solely for the reason of Naruto being on it. Apparently, the kid had far too much talent. Raido, being a soon full Jonin, and having never taken a team before, had asked for advice from Kakashi. Raido was just going to test the team's willingness to work together, and if they could, they passed.

"I just thought before we got to the details of that test, we would introduce ourselves and tell each other our likes, hobbies, and dreams for the future. I would like to get an idea of who I am dealing with before I pass judgement. I will go first so that you see what I mean. My name is Raido Namiashi. I am getting promoted to a full Jonin on Monday whether I take you three on as students or not. I am thirty years old. I like kenjutsu and my sword Kokuto. I dislike fools and people who do not take being shinobi seriously. My dreams for the future are to maybe start a family one day once I feel like settling down. Now you, Uzumaki, you next." Raido said to the children.

Naruto responded quickly enough without skipping a beat. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I will be eleven years old come October tenth. I like, Iruka, Kakashi-sensei, and Hokage-jiji. I also enjoy Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. I also dislike fools who don't take being a shinobi seriously. I don't like those who cannot look underneath the underneath, and those who judge a book by their cover. My dreams for the future are to gain Chunin rank at the first possible opportunity and enter Hokage-jiji's ANBU Black Ops and defend this village." Was his passionate monologue.

Raido had expected this after speaking with Kakashi and the Hokage. The kid was dedicated to the village and being a shinobi. Just by the clothing he wore, Raido respected the kid. All shinobi clothing, some armor, no bright colors. 'This one might not be so bad.'

"Ok, thank you for sharing Naruto, that is a good goal to have. If you pass under me, I will do what I can to get you there." Said Raido. Internally. 'I mean, just with who your father and mother are, of course I'll probably end up passing you. He thought with a frown.

"Ok, Iroha, you next please."

"Hai sensei. My name as you know, is Iroha Raigan. I am twelve years old and I like my family and would like to learn Kenjutsu. I dislike fangirls, as well as those who look down on clan less shinobi. My goals for the future are to one day become a Jonin and have a team of my own." Was Iroha's response.

"Good, those are also good goals Iroha. If you pass, I may just pass on my kenjutsu style to you." Raido told the kid with a small smile, earning himself a very enthusiastic one in return.

"Now Tekuno, what about you?"

"My name is Tekuno Ise. I am also twelve years old. I like my little cousin Udon, who will be starting the academy at the start of the new year. I do not like cats. My goals for the future are to learn my elemental affinity and become a ninjutsu specialist." Said Tekuno.

"Very good, now that we all know a little about each other, we can start this test. Allow me to lay down the ground rules. You three will have to come at me with everything you got. If you do not impress me with your skills, then I will ship you back o the academy." Raido told them as he pulled out a timer and set it. "You have until the timer runs out, which is set for thirty minutes. You may begin…. NOW!"

And with that, Team Five's trial by fire began.


	9. Trial by Fire

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: Ok, I am extremely excited with how many people have ended up following this story. I really appreciate that you guys like it so far.

YuukiAsuna-Chan-Most Fanfics have Naruto having wind element. I personally don't know why him having the opposite to wind would seem boring.

Pisces146-I was really debating whether to do OC's or to just give Naruto an instructor to himself. It is going to be difficult, but hopefully I can grow their personalities out well enough. I did it in the end mostly as a challenge and to see if I could create my own.

Flying Raijin-Sorry, was just a typo. I try to catch them all when I read back through the chapters, but I can't catch every mistake.

Obstrocity-I'm sorry you feel that a team with Lee was the only way to go with the story, but personally, him and THIS Naruto on a team together just would not fit. Naruto may work extremely hard for the skills he has, but he would get annoyed by Lee's eccentrics quickly. If you don't want to read the story anymore, so be it.

Bigfan22-The rookie 9 will make their appearance don't worry on that. I am just thinking of where I want the OC's to end up and all that jazz. I am always open to suggestions, I like to try and warp the story a bit to all your whisperings. It keeps fresh ideas at the forefront of the mind.

So, for Pairings in the future what we have on the review poll is

NarutoxIno-2 votes

NarutoxFu-1 vote

NarutoxKarin-3 votes*

NarutoxYakumo-1 vote

No Pairing-1 vote

Reminder that we have a way to go before Naruto looks for a relationship, but it looks like some people want a possible Uzumaki clan rebirth. I really like the idea of that. Naruto will learn about his clan soon hopefully, I'm just indecisive on how I want that to pan out, same for the Kyubbi reveal.

Chapter Nine: Trial by Fire

"You may begin…. NOW!" Raido shouted to the Genin hopefuls.

Immediately Tekuno launched himself across the rock towards his possible sensei with a right haymaker prepped and ready. Raido merely side stepped to his left and chopped the Genin in the back of the neck, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

Iroha could be seen nervously looking back and forth from his teammate's downed body and meeting his sensei's eyes. 'Tekuno should have known better. This is a Jonin.' He thought to himself. He looked over to his other teammate. The red head was already in a fighting stance and had a calculating look in his eyes as he circled his way around Raido.

Once Naruto seemed to be out of the Jonin's field of vision the boy nodded to Iroha, and he could do nothing except assume that Naruto wanted him to act when he himself did. Iroha nodded in return, and the two Genin simultaneously launched shuriken at the older man.

The body of Raido, now turned into a metaphorical pin cushion, evaporated into smoke and a log stood in its place. Naruto took this time to retrieve their downed teammate and signaled for Iroha to follow him to the tree line.

Once properly camouflaged, Naruto slapped Tekuno awake. The boy startled out of his forced slumber. "Wha- OW!" He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "That smarts a bit, what the hell happened?' he asked the other two boys as he realized they were there.

"Raido-sensei chopped you in the back of the neck, and dropped you like a bad habit. You should be more careful than that Tekuno, the man is a Jonin and we are shinobi. Why would you attack head on?" asked Iroha.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "He is right, if we want to pass this last little examination, we have to take this seriously. Raido will be too difficult for us to beat without coordinating with each other. What jutsu do you guys know, and what do you have for weapons?" asked the red head, trying to formulate a plan in his mind already.

"Well, I just know the academy three honestly. I mean I have a couple of shinobi in my family, but none of them ever taught me anything extra." Was Tekuno's response. "What about you Iroha?"

"Well, I am in the same boat really. I'm first generation. I only know what was taught to us in the academy right now, more jutsu aren't available from the shinobi library until we are officially Genin after all." Iroha said while looking down on the ground. "I don't have any formal kenjutsu training or a blade, my parents couldn't afford it. I planned on buying one after a few missions."

This didn't surprise Naruto. 'Well, they are basic Genin, they didn't have the extra training. In terms of experience we are technically all green regardless, I just trained a lot.'

"Ok, that is fine, we may have to just stage traps and the what not. I can be our frontline fighter, I know a few fire jutsu so I might be able to put him on his toes so that you guys can catch him off guard with throwing weapons or something. If you see an opening, take it." He explained to them.

Neither of the other two really liked the fact that it sounded like the younger boy would end up having to pull more weight in this than them. They could at least acknowledge that he was right though, this didn't eliminate either of their sense of failure though.

'I have to get better after this exam, no more waiting, I need to get a sword.'

'If we pass this, I need to start jutsu training.'

These were the thoughts of Iroha and Tekuno respectively.

"I don't really like that you'll be the only one in the line of fire for a bit, but I can put up with it if we end up passing." Was Iroha's opinion on the matter.

"I'm not fond of it either, but once we nail this exam, I am soooo catching up to you in jutsu training." Was what came from Tekuno.

"Alright, we should figure out a game plan then" said Naruto.

-Break-

Raido had taken to hiding in the upper trees and was currently watching his three charges. He was suppressing his chakra so they could not sense him. 'Tekuno seems to have been a little too excited. The other two were capable of working in tandem to get him out of a bad situation at least.' He mused to himself. Raido was just like Kakashi when it came to the belief that teamwork was essential for Genin. If they could work as an actual unit to try and put him on the ropes, then he would absolutely pass them. 'Hmm, they seem to have finished their little scheming. Let's try and interrupt that now.' Raido thought as a small grin cam to his face. Hey, who knew that messing with Genin could be so much fun!?

He quickly shunshined into the area that his three hopefuls were gathered in. "You three wouldn't be up to something suspicious now, would you?' he asked. Iroha and Tekuno gave the reactions that he was trying to get out of them, but Naruto made him frown. He had just glanced in his direction with no apparent change in his eyes or facial expression. 'Dear god, Kakashi, what did you put this boy through?' Raido thought, slightly alarmed.

-Break-

As soon as Raido-sensei appeared next to them suddenly, they all faced him. Iroha and Tekuno were a little unnerved that he seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, but Naruto seemed to be calm. This reassured the other two a little bit. Naruto then addressed them. "You two fall back, I'll cover your retreat." He got a couple of quick nods in response and the other two Genin flew from the mini clearing.

Naruto just assumed a fighting stance and got ready to react to anything Raido might do. This seemed to amuse the older man a bit. The Jonin then assumed a stance as well and gave the come-hither gesture to Naruto. 'Taijutsu it is I guess.'

Naruto took in a deep breath, and then in a burst of speed that surprised the Jonin, began a furious assault. Once he was close enough, he opened with a left jab that was a feint for a grab to Raido's sleeve. The more experienced of the two caught this and deflected the hand. This caused Naruto to spin a bit from being off balanced, but he used it too his advantage and turned it into a spinning elbow. Raido hollowed out of the way of that and he then threw a front ball kick at the boy. The kick connected and pushed Naruto back a distance. Naruto landed and maintained his ready stance and Jonin and Genin stared off at each other.

Raido was merely playing the defensive side, these were Genin after all. 'Well the kid can certainly use the ANBU style, I'll give him that. He almost got me with that elbow.' He thought amusedly to himself. Moments later Naruto seemed to have decided that their little spar was over and booked it out of the area heading towards where his teammates originally fled to. 'Well let's see what kind of plan they have for me now.'

-Break-

Tekuno and Iroha were earnestly trying to finish the last trap they had planned out before Naruto landed next to them from the trees above. They were holed up setting a deer trail with a kunai trap that they knew their Join tester would not fall for. It all seemed rather hopeless in their own opinions.

Tekuno voiced his frustrations to the last addition to the team after he arrived. "This is a Jonin Naruto! Do you really expect this to work on one of the village's elite shinobi?" He asked the red-head, a grimace clearly settled upon his face.

Iroha and Naruto just frowned in response, Iroha, thinking deeply, and Naruto not liking this 'give it up, all is hopeless' attitude of his teammate.

"The point is to show that we can work as a unit and that we can at least show off Genin level skills, I think. We just need to impress him enough to make him deem us worthy of being Genin, we can do that through teamwork, and showing off what skills we do know." Naruto told his brown-haired teammate.

"I mean, he definitely doesn't expect us to win Tekuno, like you just said, he is a Jonin after all. We should just show him what we got and throw everything we have at him and hope for the best." Added Iroha. "Now let's clear out, this was the last trap and we should set the bait, Tekuno, you're up."

At this the three Genin moved into position awaiting their sensei. Tekuno back-tracked through the trail of traps they had set and started to run the gauntlet. The plan was that he was the bait, and his sensei should follow him, or at least spot the traps and take note of them. The true trap was the other two Genin. They were in position for a pincer attack towards the end of the trail that ended off at a very small clearing.

-Break-

Raido was amused, and a little bit impressed. 'They can certainly work as a team all right but making them sweat it out is proving to be fun. I'll humor their little plan and see just what they cooked up and if they have any decent surprises.'

With that, spotting Tekuno in his pale-yellow shirt running through the trail, he began to follow on foot scaring the poor a Genin out of his wits, making him run faster.

Raido decided to circumvent all their traps and not trigger them at all as he passed them. 'Should get them to sweat some more' Raido internally grinned.

This served to instill more fear in Tekuno as Raido could see whenever the boy looked back to see if he had gotten snared in any of them. Raido truly was amused that the boy hoped his academy traps would trick a Jonin.

They were finally nearing the area that Raido already knew his other two students were staged. He could sense them already. Iroha, the black-black haired boy was standing behind a large tree, hidden from view, and the red-head of the team was hidden up in a tree on the other side of the trails canopy. Once he and Tekuno passed in between the two, an unexpected number of Kunai rained down on him from the canopy that Naruto was in. He had to use a kawarimi to get out of there. 'Does he know how to replicate his kunai!? That is an A-Ranked offensive technique!? Damnit Kakashi you didn't tell me about that one!'

That attack had truly caught him off guard a little bit. He had substituted into another clearing and was observing the three now that they had sprung their ambush on him. He could spot all three, but then was confused as to why he heard a kunai whistling towards him from behind. He dodged but heard the hissing of an explosive tag. After another kawarimi, and a tree getting blown to bits a long with a replacement log, Raido was a little off-balance. 'What in the hell!?'

Iroha had appeared next to him and tried to stab him with another kunai. When he went to bat the Genin away his hand phased right through. 'Bunshin!' And immediately he was set upon by all three Genin surrounding him and bum rushing him. Naruto took the lead and slid into his guard to try and hit his sternum with a leopard's paw. He weaved out of the way while he redirected Tekuno's attempt at a round kick towards his torso. Iroha tried to use that as another chance to stab him in the back but he kicked the Genin's hand away from him.

'So, they are taking this seriously then. Good.' Were Raido's thoughts before he kicked it up a notch and jumped into the air and split kicked Iroha and Tekuno away from him when they tried to sandwich him. Iroha flew through some bushes and Tekuno smacked into a tree on the opposite side.

-Break-

Naruto didn't like that his new teammates just got the proverbial stars kicked into them. He was glad to see them both nod towards him and make their way out of the clearing properly to get into another good position. This meant that now it was Naruto's turn to be the distraction again. 'Let's bring up the heat then.' Naruto thought with a smirk. Locking onto Raido, who was just watching him, he started going through rapid hand signs. 'Tiger, Ram, Monkey, boar, Horse, Tiger! Great Fireball no jutsu!' And he launched the large ball of fire towards the Jonin.

He couldn't see the Jonin's eyebrows raise in response, but Raido went through a series of hand seals of his own and made a wall of earth raise from the ground to defend him from the heat. Naruto had already expected something like this and used a burst of speed to move to the flank and toss some shuriken towards the older man. He used Ninja wire to wrap his target and proceeded to prepare another jutsu on the surprised shinobi.

'Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger! Dragon Fire no jutsu!' and Naruto sent a stream of fire down the wires towards Raido. He noticed the Jonin use kawarimi again without seals and got on edge looking for the man.

-Break-

'Ok, that was unexpected. If I had been a Genin or a fresh Chunin, he would have just fried my ass!' Thought Raido.

-Break-

"Did you know that Naruto could do that?" Tekuno asked Iroha in disbelief.

The black-haired boy just numbly shook his head. "No, I didn't, we should get into position though, we only have five or so minutes on this test left."

The two then moved further down the tree line and prepared for the finale.

-Break-

Raido appeared back into the clearing with Naruto.

"That was impressive Naruto, you do know that knowing elemental techniques isn't the standard for being a Genin though, correct?" Raido asked the red-head, feigning ignorance about the boys training with Kakashi.

"Meh, so I like to over achieve, so what? Now, let's get back to it." Naruto responded and followed by charging his sensei even faster than before.

'He got faster suddenly.' Raido thought as he began blocking Naruto's flurry of kicks and punches. The man kept getting pushed back as he allowed the Genin to press the attack. 'These kids certainly do impress. Their ambush from earlier would have worked on a weaker opponent, and Naruto used himself as the juggernaut to allow his teammates a clean escape. I just want to see a little bit more, we have a couple of minutes left.'

As the pair kept moving, Raido's senses informed him that he was about to die. He realized why when Naruto turned into a log. 'Kawarimi!' and the next thing he knew he was in between a cross fire of thrown shuriken.

-Break-

All the shuriken did not hit their intended target. Raido-sensei had somehow disappeared into the dirt. This put the Genin on edge until behind them they heard clapping. This caused all of them to whip around with weapons drawn.

It was Raido and he had a small smile on his face. "Congratulations you three, our thirty minutes are over, and I can say I am impressed. Starting tomorrow, Team Five will meet in our training grounds for morning training, and then we will do a mission or two."

This announcement got all three Genin smiling as well. Tekuno jumped in the air a little bit and pumping his fist into the air.

Iroha shook his head at his more excitable teammates actions and just let out a sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding.

Naruto proceeded to sheath his tanto that he drew when Raido snuck up on them. He could now relax a little bit and not be so on guard. They had passed, and he was one step closer to his goals now.

Noticing the reactions of the three, Raido decided some more time as a team would be a good idea before they started training tomorrow. "So, you three, to celebrate your official graduation, what say we head out and get something to eat, on me of course." He asked them.

Getting affirmatives from all three he proceeded. "Ok, I know a pretty good dango shop, and it's shinobi owned so we get a pretty good discount. Let's go."

Team Five then made their way back towards the village with Tekuno chatting happily to their sensei, asking about the jutsu that he and Naruto had used, and Iroha was asking when he would be allowed to start training in kenjutsu. Naruto just walked quietly with a small smile on his face thinking things weren't so bad with this team.

-Break-

At the dango shop, their order had just been brought over. It was a large plate of numerous dango for them all to share while they talked. Raido had also gotten a bottle of sake and enough cups to give one drink to each of his students.

"Ok kids, you are officially shinobi, and therefore the drinking age does not apply to you. I don't want you making this a common occurrence, you are still young, but I feel you have earned this little lapse in judgement with your performance earlier." He told the three as he poured for glasses, one in front of each of them. "Now, a toast, to Team Five!"

All four clinked their glasses and uttered a short round of cheers. The alcohol seemed to make Tekuno a little green, and Iroha looked a bit out of breath from the burning feeling. Naruto just didn't like the taste but was more than ok with trying the coveted drink.

After the toast, the four began eating away at their dango, and talking about the schedule for the team from here on out.

"So Raido-sensei! What are we going to start training on first and what kind of missions will we be doing?" Tekuno asked eagerly.

Raido finished the dumpling that he was currently shewing before responding. "Well Tekuno, I guess we will start by meeting at our training ground every day at five AM. You guys are fresh Genin, and I must run you guys into the ground for a bit. We will do warm ups depending on where you are all at physically, then after those we will do teamwork drills and teach you guys how to effectively use the formations you learned in the academy. Then we will train some chakra control for a little bit, and after that take a couple of missions for the day to help build up your portfolios. After missions, I guess we can work on individual training for a little bit and then call it a day around three or four in the afternoon."

This didn't bother Naruto too much, he already trained at that time, now it just wouldn't be with Kakashi. After the meeting, he would explain how his own training schedule worked to his sensei and try to find out when he would be able to train with Kakashi-sensei.

"When we do the individual training, will that be when you start teaching me Kenjutsu Raido-sensei?" Iroha asked hopefully. He was a first-generation shinobi and therefore couldn't get assistance from his parents.

"Yes Iroha, that is when we will work on whatever it is that you guys may want to learn. This may be your Taijutsu, Kenjutsu for you, or learning new Ninjutsu. It depends on you guys, you can also always ask for training later into the night, or train on your own. I just ask that you don't overdo it, I plan to do at least two missions a day with you guys. We will do that for three weeks, and then take a week off from missions where I basically just put you guys through a week-long ringer, and we start over from there."

That last part caused Tekuno and Iroha to forcibly gulp, but Naruto just smiled. He absolutely loved challenging training. 'I actually like the sound of that schedule, one week a month for intense training sounds perfect to me.'

The four just continued eating and speaking of random things as the questions came to their minds.

-Break-

The next day saw Team Five up bright and early, training their hides off. For Naruto, this was nothing new to him, he just went off and did his own warm ups with Raido-senseis permission. He was currently doing cool down stretches as he watched his teammates finish up their work out. They looked exhausted to put it simply.

Tekuno was bent over at the knees, sucking wind. "Why is it, that you looked like you were doing a harder exercise, yet you finished before we did, and you are barely sweating!?"

Iroha just nodded while clutching a stitch in his back that was cramping up.

"Well, I've been working out like this with weights on for years, I guess it might be time to up them again though." Naruto answered and mused out loud. The part about weights caught Iroha's attention though, he was usually more perceptive than Tekuno.

"What do you mean weights Naruto?" he asked.

"Oh? I wear chakra weights to supplement my training. They help to quickly increase strength and speed in a shinobi." Was his reply.

"Oh, so that was why you were moving so fast yesterday, you took your weights off so you could keep up with Raido-sensei, makes sense now." Tekuno said with a sagely nod to himself.

"Actually Tekuno, I never took my weights off, I left them at the same one hundred and ten pounds per limb that I usually do."

The other two Genin just stared at him for several uncomfortable moments before…..

"YOU CAN MOVE THAT FAST WITH YOUR WEIGHTS ON!?" was Tekuno.

"YOU HAVE ONE HUNDRED AND TEN POUNDS ON EACH LIMB? THAT IS FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY POUNDS NARUTO!" was Iroha.

Off to the side, Raido had his eyebrows raised. That was a staggering weight to be using for training for a Genin who was only eleven years old. 'It must be because of the Kyubbi then.' He thought to himself. 'That, or it's the part about him being an Uzumaki.' He remembered from his time as Minato's body guard. He was one of the few who knew about him and Kushina having a child together.

Naruto, surprised from the outbursts of his teammates, finally responded to them. "Well, yes, I have been using them non-stop for years now, and Kakashi-sensei and Hokage-jiji say I have a very fast healing factor compared to most shinobi. They say it has to do with my large chakra reserves. Don't you guys use weights?" he asked with a little bit of confusion. He had thought they were common place for shinobi.

Raido was the one to answer that. "Well Naruto, our teammates are only just getting to the age where for them, using weights would be considered safe. I knew about you using them, but I didn't know how heavy yours were set to. I was going to get Tekuno and Iroha a pair after the first month of being a team and our first one-week training excursion. I wanted them to get used to the workouts I set up for them before having them add some weight." This got a surprised look from all the Genin.

"What? I plan to run you guys through the ringer, Tekuno, Iroha, you two will especially have to train hard if you want to catch up to your teammate. I don't want to hear anything about him having a head start either. You guys will need to train to get up to an acceptable level, and I want to be doing C-ranked missions by three months from now, D-ranks are just plain painful." Raido told his students with a smirk.

This got a groan from Naruto, him already knowing exactly what a D-rank mission entailed, and a confused look from the other two, they had absolutely no idea how the mission structure worked now, but no worries, they would learn soon enough.

-Break-

Time skip, three weeks.

Today was the day that Team Five started their one-week training camp for their first month as a team. Raido-sensei had kept his promise, he would work them into the ground, and they would do a minimum of two D-ranks a day after morning training. Over the past three weeks, they had completed thirty-eight missions, THIRTY-EIGHT. The worst part was, that because of how fast Naruto was, they got the Capture Tora mission for thirteen of those. The damn wife of the Fire Lord's cat always ran away from the plump woman who tried to suffocate it with love.

Tekuno and Iroha had been whipped into shape by Raido over these three weeks, they now could do the same work outs as Naruto but with only a hundred of the repetitions compared to Naruto's thousands when he got used to his weight level.

Raido had also started showing the basics of Kenjutsu to Iroha, having him practice with a wooden katana, and starting the team off on tree climbing. Since Naruto could already do this, and water-walking, he had him try levitating a kunai above his hand with the blade facing up. If he could do this one without the blade falling or tipping over, he would have mastered the next step of chakra control known to the Leaf village.

Iroha and Tekuno could each walk up the trees several times now that they had gotten that down, and were still practicing, both for their control, and to increase their chakra reserves. Tekuno wouldn't start on any form of elemental training until he got his chakra control and reserves to a good enough level.

The team drills worked out well for the three, so far, they could work well together, and never tripped each other up when trying some of the more complex attack patterns on their sensei. Raido had told them that they, and Team Nine were the only two teams to be passed by their Jonin. They took pride in this. They also on principle tried to stay ahead of the other team on number of missions completed just because of Naruto's feud with the Hyuga on that team. They were worried that they might catch up over the course of the next week.

Might Guy wasn't really worried about D-rank missions though and only completed the six or seven a week so that his students would have a solid pay check every week. The rest of the time was team training or showing his apprentice Lee some more of the Strong Fist Taijutsu style.

So, Team Five were being driven into the ground on all aspects by Raido. Naruto had been told to increase his training weights to one hundred and twenty pounds for this week-long training they would be doing. They were going to be camping at training ground five instead of going home every night. This was so they could maximize the time spent working on something and not having to worry about going home.

Raido's theory on this was also to train them on keeping a watch shift over camp to prepare them for missions outside of the village, and to get them used to field life. Raido, ever the practical shinobi, refused to let his team outside of the village walls without properly ensuring that they were as trained as he could get them to be. This week, if they thought they had tough training before, they were in for a real surprise.

-Break-

"Ok you three, now that camp is set up, you know the drill, get to your warm ups." Raido commanded his students. "But first, Iroha, Tekuno, come here I have something for you." He proceeded to hand each of the two a package. When they opened them, they revealed a set of black chakra weights each. "I decided this would be the perfect time to get you guys started on using these. On their basic level without pumping chakra into them, they weigh five pounds per limb, I want you to start off with that and try to complete your exercises as normal. Naruto, you already increased your weights, so you are fine."

Iroha and Tekuno put the weights on and tested their legs and arms, trying to get used to the weights.

"Let's go, get to it you three." Raido reprimanded. The three Genin immediately shot off to start their laps around the grounds. 'Man, I love messing with rookies sometimes. Who knew teaching could be so much fun?' he asked himself, remembering that time that Tekuno had fallen from the tree and whacked his head on the ground during the tree climbing training.

Once the three were done with their exercises he gave them a few minutes break before calling them over. "Ok, now, we will spend the next hour going over your formations and ensuring even when this fatigued, you can keep them up. I want to see a hustle out there." And the team was off practicing the scenarios of search and rescue, capture, attack, defend, and assassinate formations. Once this hour was up also, he got them going on tree walking, trying to get them used to doing it with the added weight.

Naruto didn't have too much trouble, being used to learning the chakra exercises numerous times with upped chakra weights. It took the other two only fifteen minutes to get comfortable with the tweaked training. After that, he brought them through the woods to a small pond so that he could teach water walking. For this one, he had Naruto try to do the kunai balancing exercise at the same time since he did it fast enough and enjoyed watching his other tow students try and fail to get the water walking down.

'Watching them get soaked while Naruto just walks around the pond trying to get the kunai to balance sure is funny.' Raido thought to himself watching each Genin struggle. Raido took this time to really think about each of his charges.

'Tekuno, he doesn't wear the brightest of yellow, and at least he wears black ANBU style pants and the standard blue shinobi sandals, but still, he could wear something a little better. I can fix that issue before we ever leave the village though, no need to be too serious with us doing missions only inside the village right now. The kid is a little goofy at times, and he doesn't think things through as often as his two teammates. Still has a good head on his shoulders and works hard to keep up with his teammates. Pfft, good luck keeping up with Naruto though, that kid is something else. Still, Tekuno has been trying hard to get his chakra levels and control up to par so that he can start learning elemental jutsu. I wouldn't usually teach him that until he was a bit older and more experienced, but a few months from now, with Naruto already knowing fire, I might throw him the basics. I wonder what his element will end up being?' were his thoughts on his brown-haired student.

He glanced over at Iroha. 'For a student that has no shinobi in his family at all, he does well and picks things up quickly enough. He has taken to Kenjutsu easily as well. A few more weeks working with a training sword and I might bring him to get a real one commissioned. He is a bit of a bookish one, I've caught him at the library a few times looking for styles to learn from some scrolls. I will probably end up teaching him my own style so he can truly learn one. Scrolls only do so much. The kid is definitely determined to make something out of himself, and to go far despite being at a disadvantage compared to some of his peers.' Raido knew that coming from a non-shinobi background made becoming a good one difficult. You were looked down on a bit if you weren't part of a clan, or if your family hadn't set a standard for your line yet.

He finally looked over at his red-haired student. 'Naruto is even more advanced than I had expected him to be. I've seen him practice all his fire Ninjutsu at this point. The fact that Kakashi was able to teach that much to someone so young is ridiculous. The supplemental jutsu the kid knew would come in handy for him down the road as well. The fact that a tailed beast container can utilize Genjutsu at the level that he can was what truly blew him away. Jinchuuriki were chakra monsters, everyone expected them to be Ninjutsu gods and juggernauts at Taijutsu because of their inhuman strength. Naruto's early training in chakra control really left him with an advantage on other jinchuuriki if the Leaf ever needed him to go toe to toe with another one. The fact that he doesn't know about the Kyubbi yet is a bit troubling though. Hokage-sama should tell him soon enough though.' Raido knew that the boy still hung out with Kakashi and the Sandaime whenever he got the chance to. Kakashi still trained the kid at night if he wasn't on a mission as well. 'He is closest to those two, it should be them who tells him about his burden. They turned this kid into a true shinobi though. He takes everything seriously and he rarely takes the time to be a kid with his teammates. He will go far in ANBU once he makes Chunin, that is for sure. Next month's week-long training, I might get him started on that water element Kakashi said he has, he could use some defensive jutsu with all that offense he's got.'

-Break-

The week of training was up and Team Five was back to their regular three-week schedule. They had been cut out by Raido-sensei not to long ago and Naruto was making his way over to training ground seven to get some time in with Kakashi. Sick of walking, he just shunshined his way into the clearing.

He found Kakashi leaning against a training log reading an orange book and the older man would giggle every now and again. As Naruto got closer, he read the title as Icha Icha. 'Hm, wonder what that is about?' he thought. Kakashi snapped the book shut once Naruto was a few feet away and eye smiled at his surrogate little brother. "How was the week of training with Raido and your team Naruto?" the elder of the two asked.

This brought a small smile to Naruto's face. "It was pretty good Kakashi-sensei. Iroha and Tekuno were set to learn the water walking exercise with some new training weights they got and watching them try to learn and sink to the bottom of the pond randomly was really funny."

This got a chuckle out of Kakashi. "Oh, I know the feeling from when you were trying to learn, now you aren't so mad about me laughing at you now are you?"

"Nah, it was pretty funny being on the other side of it after all. Raido-sensei showed me the next chakra control exercise though. It's the one where you have to balance and levitate a kunai at the same time."

"Oh good, now I don't have to show you that. I was thinking from now on I'll let Raido teach you most of your new skills and I can just be your friendly sparring partner so that you can try them on an advanced opponent. I'll still try to teach you ANBU tactics and the what not though." Replied Kakashi.

"That sounds fair enough. Raido-sensei talked to me about soon starting my training on my water element. He says he would like to start me on the second phase of the fire elemental chakra training, but he feels I should add the possible defensive jutsu of water into my mix first before I attempt that at all."

"Well, he does have a point actually. I just wanted you to get as dangerous with one element as possible before you tried another. I think you are well rounded enough to sacrifice some of your time from fire to water though. Well, enough of that, how about a quick spar, Jutsu and weapons allowed." Offered Kakashi with an eye smile.

"That sounds fun to me!" was Naruto's response.

-Break-

Another few weeks later brought us to Team five once again doing one of their mini boot camps. Currently Iroha and Tekuno were sparring on top of the pond that Raido-sensei had them use. Those two could keep a good spar up for nearly twenty minutes now with their weights set to ten pounds each now.

Naruto had been trying to get the first phase of water manipulation down. It was in theory simple enough, and like his fire elemental training. The difference in this case as that instead of lighting the leaf on fire, he now had to get it soaking wet, the opposite of his stronger element. The point was to just saturate the leaf in water molecules that the user pulls from the air using their chakra to manipulate the element rather than using their chakra to produce extreme heat. So far, he wasn't having much luck at all.

"Ok you three, gather round over here!" Came the shout from Raido-sensei. The three Genin all stopped what they were doing and made their way over to the Jonin. Once they were all seated Raido began speaking.

"Ok you three, so far I am proud of how all far of you have gotten since your graduation. We currently hold the record for most D-rank missions done for a rookie team and we are at the end of our second month together. Iroha, Tekuno, you both have gotten far in terms of your chakra capacities and your control. Tekuno, I'll start you on the first part of chakra manipulation once we finish our little chat here. Iroha, I want you to do the same so that we know what your element is. I figure we can work on it on side of your Kenjutsu training. When we get back to the village, I'll take you to a smith to commission a sword, so you have a real one by the time we start our next week-long camp." He told the group. Iroha and Tekuno both preened at the praise and got excited about the chance to learn something new.

"Naruto, you are already working on Water chakra manipulation and that will be one of your main focuses until you get it down to a level where I will show you a D-rank water technique. Just do me a favor and don't let any of your other skills degrade just for the chance to get this knocked out." He addressed the red-head of the group who just nodded in response.

"Let's get to it, and then hopefully at the end of next weeks training camp, ill be able to deem you guys ready enough to go on a C-ranked mission." And with that his students each got up and continued to their individual training.

Now the trio of Genin were on their way towards a real mission.


	10. A Real Mission

The Blazing Leaf

A/N: Ok guys, thank you for the reviews, I do take the input and criticism to try and do better, but hey, there are learning curves.

So far, the votes for a pairing are as follows:

NarutoxKarin-4 votes

NarutoxIno-4 votes

NarutoxFu-1 vote

NarutoxYakumo-2 votes

If a pairing has too large of an age gap, I scrub them unfortunately. Naruto may be an adult and be mature, but I'm not too into the statutory kind of thing. I personally am really leaning towards Karin for an Uzumaki rebirth in a sequel, or to make this into an epic. I'm not sure yet and would love to hear some thoughts on that idea.

The chapter after this one I will be following some of your suggestions and getting rid of the "no jutsu part" you guys are definitely right on that aspect now that I've mulled it over.

If you guys noticed, I avoided being descriptive with the D-ranks, I mean hey, they are boring. Some can be comedic, but we aren't really going for that here, are we? Any who, Team Five is getting ready for a C-ranked mission.

Chapter Ten: A Real Mission

Raido proceeded to grab a small bundle of cut up papers, kept together with a small elastic band. After separating them, he passed one to each of his two students who did not know their affinities yet. 'This should be interesting regardless. We are closing in on three months, and this team outstrips what my own team was capable of after graduating.' Were his thoughts as the two Genin eagerly took the sheets. His other Genin, and the most skilled of the three just watched with a small smile on his face, curious to see what his friends would be aligned to.

"Ok you two, we will do this one at a time, starting with Tekuno. He is the one that wants to be a Ninjutsu specialist after all. To find out your affinity, all you must do is redirect a miniscule amount of your chakra into the chakra paper you are holding. The reactions to your elements will show as the paper getting soggy for water, burning to ash for fire, crumbling to dust for earth, crinkling in on its self for lightning, and cutting itself apart for wind. Try it out Tekuno." The Jonin instructed the preteens.

Tekuno immediately assumed a focused look upon his face as he held the chakra paper in between his pointer finger and thumb. After a few seconds the paper started to crumble away. 'Oh sweet! I have an element that isn't the same as Naruto. I get to contribute something unique in terms of Ninjutsu now, and this will open all sorts of possibilities for us! I hope Iroha doesn't have the earth as well, talk about redundancy on the team.' Were the brunette's inner thoughts.

"Well, it isn't the flashiest of the elements, but it is definitely a good one to have if nobody on your team has it either. I don't count, I am a Jonin, so I know a little bit about a few elements, I can definitely help with earth manipulation though." Was Raido's assessment of this new development. 'Ok, so these three currently have Fire, Water, and Earth between them all. Now if Iroha has either Wind, as much of a stretch as that is, or lightning, still a stretch but more likely, then these guys will cover almost the entire spectrum.'

"Ok Iroha, let's see what you have then." He commanded his last Genin.

Said Genin held the sheet of paper the same way he saw his teammate do and was met with a paper that immediately crinkled into a rigid ball. 'Lightning! That or wind would have been the best for me, talk about pure luck!' The usually more serious of the older teammates thought to himself.

Raido just developed a small smirk on his face that was ironically matched on all his students faces. They also some how thought but did not voice the same thing, 'That's four out of the five.'.

"Well Iroha, I know of one Jonin who is extremely proficient in Lightning manipulation and transformation, and he just so happens to be Naruto's tutor. I am sure your teammate would be more than happy to introduce the two of you. I can help Tekuno more, as earth was the second affinity that I forced myself to learn. Water was the third and is the one I am not the best at, but I can definitely get you through the first stage for water Naruto, and since fire is my own natural element, I can help you master that one later." Raido informed his team.

Tekuno was excited that his sensei would be able to help him get stronger, and Naruto was glad that their commander had the knowledge necessary to help him through his second affinity. Iroha was a little downcast that Raido-sensei wouldn't be the one to help him with his element. 'But I guess since he is teaching me Kenjutsu, it more than makes up for it. Raido-sensei is one of the few in the village that are skilled with bladed weapons.' Iroha reminded himself and perked back up a little bit.

"Well, onto the teaching part. Naruto just get back to what you were doing for your water element. It is going to take you a bit to get since it is the opposite of your fire, and you have a weaker attunement to it." Raido instructed the red-head.

"Hai sensei." Was Naruto's response before he did a short shunshin back over to the pond. This caused Raido to sweat drop a little bit. 'That kid likes that jutsu too much.'

"Iroha, for the time being while I get Tekuno started, work on your forms for your katana training. After the end of this week, we will go and get you a blade commissioned and hopefully it is ready by the time we return to the village after out C-ranked mission." He said after turning towards the black-haired of the three.

Iroha just smiled and gave a slight bow as he went to retrieve his wooden practice blade.

"Okay Tekuno, come with me, we are going to get you going on the first part of earth chakra manipulation." He said to his last student and began walking a little bit away from the other two until him and Tekuno were in a tiny spot clear of trees and rocks alike.

"So here is the deal, the first part of earth chakra training is to manipulate it, just as Naruto is for water. Naruto must learn to pull water from the air, as that is less chakra draining than trying to create it from scratch within himself. That problem can't be addressed for his fire element unless he happened to be around a blazing forest or a camp fire, so he had to learn to create the flames on his own for the first step to that. For you, the point will be to harness the dirt around you and manipulate it into a variety of shapes. The best part about the start of earth training is that to get better with this aspect, you just need to get creative with what you try and mol the earth into. Are you understanding so far Tekuno?" Raido lectured.

The brown-haired boy nodded enthusiastically and responded quickly. "Yes sensei! Essentially what you're saying is that I just must use the earth like my own personal and castle, and that will help me learn to use earth chakra in Justus! Right?"

'Heh, not always an air head as he constantly decides to remind me, I guess.' Raido thought in amusement. He still held it against the kid for rushing in against a Jonin without a plan.

"Yes Tekuno, that is the jist of it. Now, for you to start off with, I want you to try and lay your hand with the back of it laying on the ground, palm up. Then, you will try and pull the dirt into your palm, you don't need a lot, but the idea is to start shaping it into a little ball, like this." Raido said as he demonstrated, placing his hand down, and forming a good-sized ball that fit comfortably into his hand.

"When you can get the point of rapidly changing its shape, will you be good enough to start learning Jutsu, like this." And Raido began making odd shapes, like a sculpted cat that looked oddly like Tora, a miniature tree with shocking detail, and a miniature child holding a stick.

Tekuno just got even more excited at the display. "Oh boy, don't you worry too much sensei, I am going to get this stuff down as fast as possible, I'll train a lot on my own time."

"That is good to hear, now take this, it is a scroll that details how to go about this exercise in more depth, you can use this as a guide and will help you when I am not around to answer your questions, like your personal training." Raido said as he tossed a small brown scroll to the boy.

"Thanks sensei!"

"No problem, now excuse me, I have to go and check on Iroha now." And the Jonin walked off towards his, in his mind, little Kenjutsu protégé.

-Break-

Raido caught Iroha working on the fourth form for the basic style that he was trying to teach the kid in terms of the use of a katana. It was the run of the mill style taught to all budding Leaf village swordsmen who didn't want to use the villages traditional tanto. It acted as a good foundation for personal styles that one could create, or learn from a master, apprentice relationship.

'Kid is getting good, definitely bringing him to get a real one commissioned. And a chakra capable blade with that lightning affinity of his. Iroha will be a Kenjutsu monster when he gets older.' The Jonin thought to himself as he watched the boy.

Iroha had just finished the form and was about to flow into the fifth before Raido interrupted him. "Ok Iroha, how about a quick little spar to help you hone your reflexes?"

"Yes, please sensei, I would like that." Iroha responded with a smile. Kenjutsu spars with his sensei were easily his favorite parts of training with team five. Yeah, team drills were all right and so was the chakra training, but swords were his passion. He couldn't wait until Raido-sensei brought him to a smith in a few days.

Sensei and student squared off with each other as Raido retrieved a training blade from a scroll he kept in his Jonin vest. With a burst of speed and a quick initiation of the spar courtesy of Iroha, the bout began.

-Break-

Naruto was slowly trying to concentrate the water molecules in the air around him to soak into the leaf he was holding between his fingers. It was harder than fire in his opinion, with that, it came almost naturally to him Super heating your chakra until it ignites had become a norm. Now trying to pull his primary elements opposite was grating on his nerves.

He had been at it for what felt like a couple of hours now, making a snail's progress. He decided to take a pause and clear his mind of his frustrations. He moved over to a tree and sat underneath its foliage cross-legged and put his left hand on his left knee and put his right into a half ram seal. Kakashi had shown him this exercise when he was younger, filled with youth's exuberance, and used it to help temper his patience.

Slowly, he breathed in through his nose, and exhaled through his mouth. His eyes were shut, and he allowed the sounds of nature and his training teammates drift away. The only thing he could hear now were his inner thoughts.

'I can do this.'

-Break-

Raido was making his way back towards where Naruto had gone off to train. He fondly shook his head at the sheer amount of effort his students put in to his studies ever since they fell under his command. 'With all the training these guys get up to, maybe I should have prepped them for a C-rank a long time ago. Eighty-four D-rank missions in the matter of three months might come off as extreme to other instructors.' He thought to himself.

'They are young still, but I had bloodied my hands when I was a bit younger than them thanks to the war. I'll leave it up to fate with their mission. If it is bandit clearing, they will have to kill, if its an escort, it's an escort, no use sweating over it. The Jonin of team five worried. As a first-time sensei, being taken from his duties as the Hokage's bodyguard, he just wasn't sure how to approach this subject with the boys. It was peace time, yet as shinobi, they were expected to take the lives of those deemed a threat.

'It's a lesson they need, and best it happens early in their careers incase it ruins them. We will take it one step at a time, and if any of them have problems, I'll be there to guide them through it.'

-Break-

The week was over, and the team was back to their regular schedule. After their morning training, Raido told Naruto and Tekuno they were free to go and to report back tomorrow to meet up for their C-ranked mission. Currently, he and Iroha were making their way down the commercial district in the Leaf. They stopped outside of a shop that had crossed blades in the display window. The sign above read 'Tekashi's Forge and Wares'.

"Ok Iroha, you have enough money on you for a down payment, right?" Raido asked. He didn't think this would be an issue, his kids had done a ridiculous amount of D-Ranks, and that cash added up quick with how frequent they did theirs.

"Yes Raido-sensei, I should have more than enough to cover the entire commission from what you were telling me." The boy responded before opening the shops door and entering. Raido followed him in and watched the Genin look around the walls in wonderment. The kid was a minor weapons fanatic as most swordsmen ended up being.

A large burly man covered in scars came out from a door behind the front counter. He had brown hair and eyes and an old, tired smile at seeing new customers, one that he recognized. "Raido! How good to see you, I trust that blade of yours is treating you well?" the man asked jovially.

Raido smiled for his part and at seeing the confused look on Iroha's face. "Yes Tekashi, Kokuto has been as reliable as ever. I just used her in a spar with Hayate about a week ago. How's business?" he asked in turn.

This seemed to make the newly introduced Tekashi to glow even more. "Oh, it is going swimmingly, especially with all of you shinobi, always running out of kunai and shuriken keep business coming well enough, with he odd commission every now and again. Now, what can I get for you today?"

"Well you see, my student here has been learning the basics of Kenjutsu for a while now, and since we will be getting a C-rank tomorrow and will probably be out of the village, I decided now would be a good time for him to commission a blade, naturally I referred him to here." Raido answered, as he gestured for Iroha to introduce himself.

The boy walked p and gave a short bow to the weapons shop owner. "It is good to meet you Tekashi-san, my name is Iroha Raigan and I would very much like to request your services and commission a katana of my own now that my sensei has deemed me ready for such a thing." He respectfully inquired.

Tekashi grinned at the manners on display, younglings these days rarely treated their elders with the proper respect. 'And respect they should! Most of the village is filled with veterans from the last war after all!' were his thoughts before he returned the bow. "I would be more than happy to help you out with that my boy." He took a magazine out from under the counter and handed it to Iroha. "Here, why don't you and your sensei check out the blade designs I have in their, and if you want some customizations done, feel free to ask.

Iroha and Raido checked it over and Iroha found a blade design he liked a lot after a few minutes of searching. It was one that tempered the chakra metals to a pale ocean blue color and was about three and a half feet long, with a ten-inch handle. The bottom of the blade flared out into pointed ends and then thinned out where a hand guard should go. He opted to have the handle wrap be a navy-blue cord wrap and asked for a black sheath with a small white lightning bolt designed into it.

After running it by Tekashi, he thought for a second, before nodding and giving them a quote. "Well I would say that should take me around five days with my other orders I have right now. As for the price, I would have to say one-hundred thousand ryo. If you can't pay it off now, we do financing here since shinobi are usually good for their money, if something doesn't happen to them in the field. They wouldn't want to piss off their weapons supplier, would they?"

"Oh! I can cover that now actually!" said Iroha, shocking the shop owner. He didn't expect a Genin who shouldn't have been out of the academy for too long to have that much cash on him. At his questioning look, Raido decided to shed some light on the situation. "I had them do a drastic amount of D-ranks over the past three months, all of the kids, including myself have a nice little bank cushion because of it."

This got a knowing look from the man, he knew the pain of those missions, but if you did enough of them a week, you could make a good living. "Well alright then, lets just get an invoice for the order, and I can send you two on your way." And with that Iroha would soon have a sword that he was thinking of all sorts of names for.

-Break-

The next morning saw Naruto in the training ground just before their usual meet up time waiting for the others. Even now, just sitting down he had a leaf in hand and was trying to soak the damn thing. He had a tiny amount of progress over the last few days, the thing at least got damp now, but that was not nearly enough. After a few minutes of practice, his team started drifting in. First Iroha showed up greeted Naruto with a nod and a yawn, the former of which Naruto returned to the boy. Soon Tekuno joined them with a chipper good morning to the two and the trio waited for their sensei to arrive.

At exactly five, Raido appeared in a shunshin. "Good morning you three, the administration office doesn't open until eight so I want to spend a couple hours reviewing all of the survival training and guides I gave to you guys, before we actually leave for the mission, you will have an opportunity to go and pack some gear. Now gather round, I want to get this over with."

And once they formed a semi-circle around him, he began reviewing over everything he thought they would need for their C-rank. You never know what might end up happening on missions so best to be prepared and made aware in his eyes.

Once it was ten minutes until the office opened, he concluded the review and decided to address an issue that had almost slipped his mind until now. "Tekuno, since we will be leaving the village, you will be required to change into a darker colored shirt while you are packing. Do you own anything in a dark green, blue, black, brown, or grayish color?" Raido asked his student warily, the other two looked professional enough, and he didn't want to insult his charge with a critique to his fashion sense.

This got a surprised look from Tekuno as he glanced t his torso in thought. "Yes, I do sensei, I just used that shirt for training and the what not. If you didn't want me to wear it, I could have changed my shinobi attire awhile ago." He responded, getting an immediate sweat drop from the three others on the team. 'He had something else to wear this entire time!' were the uniformed mind shouts of the others who had always wondered why Tekuno wore a color that would give him away out in the forests.

Raido just rubbed his face and tried not to get too aggravated. "Very well, just be sure to wear something more fitting for a shinobi from this day forward, ok"

"Of course, Raido-sensei!" Tekuno responded happily.

"Well, lets make our way to go see the Hokage, he usually likes to brief every team the first time they take a mission above the rank they usually do. He can also assign us one then as I'm sure he will have a few he hasn't brought over to be distributed yet." Said Raido, and team five quickly made their way to the administration building connected to the Hokage's tower.

After Raido requested the first C-rank for Team Five, the Chunin on duty wrote them a slip, and instructed him to bring his Genin next door to see the Hokage. They only had a ten-minute wait after climbing the tower, and soon the four shinobi were standing in front of the old man's desk, waiting for instructions.

Hiruzen smiled kindly at his Jonin and three of his fresh Genin. This was the team with his surrogate grandson on it, and if they were here it meant they were requesting their first C-rank. "Well good morning Team Five, please, have a seat, all of you." The Hokage gestured to each of them. After they all were seated, he decided to address the current issue.

"So, am I to assume that you are here to request a C-ranked mission for your students Raido-kun?" he asked his old bodyguard.

Raido nodded before speaking. "Yes Hokage-same, my team has completed eighty-four D-ranks in the past three months and have undergone some of the more advanced training for Genin. I feel they are more than up to the challenge of taking a more advanced mission. Do you have anything that you would like us to take care of?" he respectfully answered and asked his village leader.

'Hmm, I don't have any escort missions right now. We just got a huge influx of requests to eliminate some bandit camps towards the northern border. Should I send fresh graduates, Naruto at that, to go and bloody their hands?' Hiruzen thought to himself. He looked at each of the Genin, trying to decipher if they were up to it. Tekuno was trying to maintain a professional posture, but you could see the excitement rolling off him. 'He seems confident and eager enough.'

Looking at Iroha, he saw a much calmer façade, but even then, he caught the slight smile on the boy's lips, clearly anticipating leaving the village for a while. Looking at his favorite Genin, not that he would tell his other shinobi that, he couldn't help but to swell with pride at the blank, professional face on the boy was wearing. 'Well Naruto-kun, you want to join the ANBU, and you are so advance already, I won't hold you back, I just hope you and the other two can stomach the lives of being shinobi after this.'

"You are sure that you feel that these Genin are up to a C-ranked mission then Raido-kun?" he asked the Jonin. At being addressed, Raido straightened his back just a little bit more, and met the old leaders' eyes before responding. "Yes, Hokage-sama, I am confident in these three shinobi to live up to the task."

Hiruzen smiled grimly. "Very well then. Let's see what we have then." He looked through a couple of the mission scrolls that he had already approved that morning and found one that should be easy enough. This one would bring the boys to the northern border and would be looking to be about twenty to thirty bandits in the area. The Daimyo was requesting they all be sentenced to death. "This will have to do. Raido, you and your students will need to travel to the border of with the Land of Waterfalls. We are allied and we will not be crossing the border so no issues should arise. You will be given ten days to reach that area, search it for a camp of bandits, and dispose of them per order of the Daimyo. Do you have any questions?"

"Will we take any prisoners to take back for interrogation Hokage-same?" was a question posed by Naruto.

"You only need one prisoner Naruto-kun, and preferably the bandit who appears to oversee the rest. The others, you will have to eliminate and dispose of the bodies properly. It goes without saying to protect any civilians if they are caught in the cross fire or attacked by these rogues." Was Hiruzen's answer.

Naruto's expression did not change any but Tekuno and Iroha each looked a tad uncomfortable with the mission parameters. Seeing this, Raido asked for the team's opinion before accepting the mission. "Guys, what do you think, are you capable of completing the task?" he asked them with a challenging tone, trying to lighten them up a bit. This got the desired effect of distracting them from the thought of having to kill, and to not wanting to appear weak in front of their leader. They answered in unison. "Yes, we are up for it!" and Naruto and Raido just smiled at the change of attitude.

"Very well, Team Five accepts the mission Hokage-sama." Raido told the old man who promptly threw the scroll towards the Jonin. "Very well Raido, you should leave some time before nightfall, dismissed."

"Hai Hokage-sama." Was the in-sync response 24from the four shinobi as they rose from their seats and bowed. They then made their way out of the office and out of the building. Once outside Raido turned to address his charges. "Ok, we will leave in two hours from the main gate. Pack for up to three weeks in case something goes wrong, each of you take one of these storing scrolls, no backpacks on missions." He proceeded to toss a small scroll to each of the boys. "Dismissed."

-Break-

Back at his apartment, Naruto was double checking all of his equipment. 'Ok, extra kunai set, check. Extra shuriken set, check. Extra senbon set, check. Three extra uniforms, check. Extra shinobi tape for uniforms, check. Soldier pills, check. IFAK, check. Tanto?' Naruto reached behind him to ensure that it was still strapped to him, as well as his weapons pouches. 'Check, need those. Let's see.' He moved from his bedroom to his kitchen and started checking his cabinets for food to pack. He found a box of field ration bars, as well as some shinobi Meals Ready to Eat, or MRE's. 'Food, check.' He then made sure he had two canteens strapped to his waist and that they were full for the road. He also went and grabbed his survival kit which had his fire making kit, 'redundant', and his tent set. 'Ok, I should be all set.' He thought to himself, and finished sealing everything into the scroll, which he put into his utility pouch. 'I can't wait till I am a Chunin and rate a vest. Those things can carry so much in their pouches.' He thought despondently.

Once he was set, he moved to his front door to leave. When he opened it, Kakashi was their looking like he was about to knock. "Oh, hey Naruto-kun! Perfect, I was hoping to catch you before you guys left for your mission. Hokage-sama just informed me about it." Said the Jonin.

"What's up Kakashi-sensei? I don't mean to sound rude, but I have to make it to the gate soon."

"Mah, no worries, no worries. I was just looking to give you a gift in celebration of your first C-rank. Here, I thought you might like this, sorry for the crude wrapping paper." Kakashi said as he held out a parcel wrapped in brown to-go bag paper. Naruto accepted it and quickly tore it open with the childish enthusiasm he rarely did. Gifts from Kakashi were almost always shinobi related, so he always loved them.

Upon opening the gift, he found something that brought a fond smile to his face. There were a few dark brown facemasks, the same yet a different color to the one Kakashi always wore.

"I know you aren't in ANBU and don't rate a porcelain mask yet, but I figured you would appreciate some of these until you do get into the Black Ops." Kakashi explained with his patented eye-smile.

Naruto took one of the masks and pulled it over his face. He then took his storage scroll back out and put the rest in there for safe keepings until he returned from his mission. Once that was done, he walked up to Kakashi and embraced him in gratitude. "Thank you Kakashi-Niisan. I love them."

Kakashi returned the hug, and ruffled Naruto's hair for good measure. "Your welcome my little mini-me. Now, I believe you have a mission to get to, good luck and tell Raido I said hello."

"Thanks, Kakashi-Niisan, oh and by the way, we found out my teammate Iroha has a lightning affinity, he was wondering if you could give him the start for elemental manipulation."

"Oh, that's a surprise, sure, just bring him by for one of our spars, and I will try and work something out with him, now get going kid!" Kakashi shoed the Genin away from his own apartment.

"Yeah, Yeah." Was the response as Naruto activated a shunshin to make up for lost time to get to the gate.

Upon arriving in a small cloud of smoke, Naruto noticed that his team was there, minus Tekuno. 'I really need to try and modify the shunshin to make it a bit better than a smoke cloud. Oh well, I wonder where Tekuno is at?' were his immediate thoughts.

"Hello sensei, Kakashi-Niisan says Hello." He addressed his Jonin, who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, probably due to the addition to his wardrobe.

"Are you sure that you aren't Kakashi?" Raido jested in response.

"Nah, I'm not that good of a shinobi yet sensei. But hey, Iroha, Kakashi said that when we get back, he would be willing to help you with your lightning training." He addressed his teammate.

"Oh, nice, thanks for asking him for me Naruto, I appreciate that."

"No problem."

It was at this time that the three heard a shout. "I'm sorry I took so long!" Tekuno was sprinting down the street. "My parents were nagging me to be careful and what not and mom just had to take a bunch of photos. He said as he got near them. The rest of the team noticed that he seemed a little disheveled and had lipstick smeared on his cheek. His teammates were trying to inform him of this without busting out laughing at the poor brunette. After he finally noticed what their gestures and laughs were about, he turned beet red. "Oh shut up! It's not my fault my mom can be annoying sometimes."

"Mhmm, well whatever, we are all here so let's get a move on. I want to move fast so we will take to the trees for as long as we can. Move" Raido commanded, and Team Five was off like a race horse, heading North.

After a few hours, the sun was beginning to set so Raido instructed his Genin to make camp in clearing of the forest. Most of the Land of Fire consisted of dense woods, or large swaths of agricultural land. lumber and fresh produce were their home country's main exports.

After setting up the camp, Raido dished out camp duties to each. "Ok you three, here's how we will split it. Iroha, you will take all the canteens and fill them up. Tekuno, you're on cooking duty, so go and try and hunt down some rabbits, or search for a stream and try and fish. Naruto, you got firewood duty for the night."

"Yes sensei." Answered Iroha, and he began collecting from his teammates.

"I'm on it!" Tekuno exclaimed, handing off his canteens to Iroha before speeding out of their clearing.

"I'll be back quickly sensei." Was Naruto, who just slowly made his way into the trees.

This left Raido alone in the camp. 'Hmm, well, now I guess I have a bit to read a good book with them gone.' He thought to himself and pulled a small one out from his own utility pouch. He quickly started reading Icha Icha Make out Tactics before his students could return and judge him. This one of his few secret pleasures.

-Break-

After a night in the woods, Team Five was having a breakfast of left-over rabbit that Tekuno had killed the night before. They had already packed up there supplies and were just trying to wake up as the sun rose, even when sleeping in the wilderness, Raido ensured they were up before the sun.

Soon enough they were back on the move towards the area they were supposed to sweep for bandits. Late in the afternoon that same day, Raido halted them before double checking his map to make sure they were in the area they were supposed to be. 'We have a lot of ground to cover along this border area. We can camp where we are now, there is a good clearing down below, and we should be less than a mile from the road that the bandits keep hitting merchants on. We can start patrols in the morning.' Raido thought.

"Ok you three, set up camp, tomorrow, things get serious. Settle amongst yourselves the camp duties for the night, then double check all of your gear, we might make contact tomorrow." Raido addressed the Genin of the group.

This got differed reactions from his students. Tekuno, as expected looked nervous but excited. Iroha, just seemed to be trying to steel himself to be able to fill out his duties, they all knew what they would have to be doing. Naruto was one that scared him a little bit. The red-head had his mask on so it was hard to tell, but his eyes showed blank indifference to the news of possibly killing men tomorrow. 'You really pounded the shinobi codes into this kids head, didn't you Kakashi?' thought Raido.

-Break-

The next day, Team Five started their patrols in the area, currently they were taking the southern quadrant of the area the Hokage told them to look for these bandits. So far, no contact had been made besides the occasional forest animal. The most dangerous thing they ran into were a couple of black bears.

That night, Naruto was taking the first watch of the evening while the rest of the team slept. Though he didn't show it, the thoughts of killing someone were on the young shinobi's mind. He was currently trying to reassure himself that this was all that he trained for up and to this point. 'Kakashi-Niisan has lectured you on this a lot Naruto, there isn't anything to worry about. Those bandits are just criminals, and the Daimyo has ordered their deaths. There shouldn't be anything else to it really.' He tried to pep himself up. 'You are a shinobi, a trained assassin in the Hokage's forces. You want to be apart of the elite ANBU, so what's the problem.'

He couldn't help but to be nervous. He was afraid that he would freeze up and fail, possibly leading to one of his teammates getting hurt, or worse, KIA. 'That cannot happen, at any costs.'

"You should have nothing to worry about Naruto." Naruto whipped his head to his right, there on the tree branch he was perched on was his sensei, casually dangling his legs.

"What do you mean Raido-sensei?" The Genin asked curiously. He hadn't even sensed the man approach, but he was a Jonin after all.

Raido chuckled at the question. "I mean you shouldn't have any problems if we make contact with any bandits. You three are extremely skilled for Genin, you especially with your abilities in the three basic shinobi arts. We can easily just have you place all the bandits under a high level widespread Genjutsu, and I can have you three just walk up to the bandits and slit their throats. I probably won't have you do that for the sake of you guys getting combat experience though. I was a Tokubetsu Jonin for my skills in assassination before I rounded my skills out though, and I have been training this team to do exactly as I used to. The Hokage makes teams in a certain build, Iroha, Tekuno, and yourself were deemed the best possible team to have an assassination specialty. All the formations and team drills I have taught you guys lean towards assassinations in tandem, so I feel you guys will perform perfectly when the situation arises. You're training to go into ANBU Naruto, this mission will help you get used to the dealings of that unit very well. The ANBU are sent out on these kinds of missions all the time, except they are for missing nin that sneak past our border patrol." He informed the red-head.

This seemed to perk Naruto up a little bit, and Raido could see some of the tension leave the boy's shoulders. It was as if the thought of the mission wasn't bothering him too much anymore. "I think I really needed to hear that sensei. Kakashi-Niisan lectured me a lot about how difficult killing a fellow human would be for the first time, so for the most part I know what to expect. He shared the first time he killed with me, he was far younger than I am now, but that is war, I guess. Do you think the Leaf and the Land of Fire will be in another war any time soon sensei?"

"Hmm, it isn't likely. None of the other villages have shown a spark of aggression towards us for some years now. The last international incident we had was the Hyuga fiasco with the Hidden Cloud village. Hidden Rock village would be a big contender, they still hate us for the Third Shinobi War and what the Yondaime Hokage did to their forces, Minato-sama slaughtered them with his Flying Thunder God technique. Besides either of those two, I don't see a war happening in the future, the Leaf has the largest amount of shinobi compared to the rest of our competitors. The Fire Daimyo has a special interest in keeping our borders secure and makes sure that even though we bring in a huge boost to our own funds, that we are well financed and supplied on his dime. He doesn't even tax his own shinobi village, that is how committed the man is to a well-oiled war machine." Said Raido.

"I guess that makes sense. Everything I read and heard says that that was ridiculously bloody. I was going to look more into the second war since it isn't covered in too much depth in the academy. Anything you can tell me about that?" asked Naruto.

'He still doesn't know about his clan. I wonder how he would react? I'll have to tell Hokage-sama that the kid has an interest so he can cover it before he stumbles on it on his own. Maybe he will tell the kid about Minato and Kushina as well.'

"No Naruto, sorry, I wasn't a shinobi during that war, but I know it was nearly as bloody as the third. Some shinobi villages were even wiped out during that time. You should ask Hokage-sama about it though the next time you have a chance to visit with him on your off-time." Raido suggested to his student, trying to shift the conversation elsewhere.

"That's a good idea sensei, Jiji will know more than enough about it, the old fossil." Naruto said fondly and with a small smile on his face. "But you mentioned the Yondaime's jutsu earlier. What do you know about that?"

This through Raido for a loop. While he was under Minato's command as a member of his bodyguard, he had been taught to use his signature jutsu in tandem with his teammates incase his Kage was ever in a pinch. He didn't expect Naruto to be interested in the deadly technique since it was fabled that no shinobi from the village had learned to replicate it to use on their own.

"Well, I actually know how to use the technique, but only when the other members of Yondaime-sama's old bodyguard detail worked together. The three of us just didn't have the knowledge of seals or the conditioning of the speed the seals initiate to be able to use it effectively. Why do you ask?" he inquired.

Naruto just looked down a little sheepishly, rare behavior for his usual professional and blank demeanor. "Well see, Yondaime-sama is the one of my idols. Besides him, I really only look up to Sandaime-jiji, Kakashi-Niisan, Iruka-Niisan, and yourself sensei. ANBU too of course." Naruto admitted while rubbing the back of his head.

'It is kind of ironic how much you look up to your old man when you don't even know he is your own father, or what he had to do the night of your birthday.' Thought Raido.

"Well Naruto, if you wanted to try and learn that technique one day, I would recommend learning about Fuinjutsu and the art of seals. Besides needing to have a ridiculous natural speed that Minato-sama achieved through weight training like you do now, he was a seal master who only his own sensei Jiraiya of the Sannin could hold a candle to."

"Fuinjutsu? I guess I could look the basics up in the library and try to teach myself some of it, and maybe Jiji knows it as well. And as for speed, I'm fast for my age and I'm only eleven, I have time to get that fast when I'm older." Naruto thought out loud.

'He is indeed fast, I know plenty of Chunin who can't hold a candle to the kid.'

"Well, your shift is over Naruto, go get some sleep."

"Hai sensei."

-Break-

They had finally found the bandit camp. It had taken them till the fourth day. Team Five was hiding in the trees a distance away, watching the guard duties for the little camp and making note of how frequently they changed. When the sun started to go down, Raido withdrew them further away to address them.

"Ok you three, I will leave this up to you to hash out a plan on how to eliminate the targets. I will say that you can assume that the largest tent will hold the guy that Hokage-sama wishes for us to return to the Leaf with as a prisoner. The rest is on you, I will not engage in combat unless it is absolutely necessary to ensure you guys survive this mission, do you understand?" he asked them in the most serious demeanor he could muster. His kids would be bloodying their hands shortly and becoming true shinobi so quickly into their careers.

Naruto at the very least had a lot of knowledge on tactics thanks to Kakashi. He decided to take charge of the planning. "Ok, so, as we noticed while we were watching the guard rotations, they change about every five hours. It is just now sundown, and the last guards changed around twenty minutes ago. That gives us four hours and some change to hash this stuff out. We can expect most of them to be asleep or drunk by the time we make our move during the guard shift. I say that during the shift, as soon as the old guard is out of sight, we start off at different points around the camp, and assassinate the guards in a clockwise order until we hit a post that someone else already hit. Then after that, we can use our earpieces to coordinate as we move through the scattered fires and tents, slitting throats one by one. We should try to do all of it quietly, and only go all out on these guys if we get caught. What do you think guys?"

Iroha and Tekuno were looking at the youngest on their team in surprise. All of what Naruto just said made complete sense and was probably their best bet. By the time they would hit the camp, most of the bandits would be sleepy, or already sleeping. The guards would probably be the hardest part if they did all of this right. The each agreed with the red-head and they then proceeded to go over the final details an to ensure hand and arm signals were understood, as well as frequencies for their earpieces.

Raido looked on proudly at his kids. The plan that Naruto came up with was a good one, and if nothing too surprising happened, it should be a quick, clean mission.

-Break-

"Black, are you in position?"

"Affirmative Red, waiting for the shift change at guard point seven."

"Roger, Brown, what about you?"

"Ready and good to go! Watching Guard point eleven."

"Excellent, I am ready at guard point six. Remember to call over every time a guard post is eliminated and disposed of." The bodies would need to be hidden just in case someone came to check up on their friends while the other posts were being hit.

Naruto was in the trees, hidden by the thick foliage as he observed the guard in front of him. The man was clearly starting to fall asleep, and his relief would be coming soon.

'You get to live just a bit longer it seems.' Naruto thought grimly, trying to steel himself in preparation for their attack.

"Overwatch, this is Red, are we good to commence once the posts have conducted change over?" Naruto asked his sensei through the earpiece.

"You are good to go Red."

"Copy. From here on out, radio silence until switching posts."

Naruto got the affirmatives from each member of the team, and then focused back in on his mark. Soon enough, a black-haired man with a sword came to relieve the brown-haired one that was currently falling asleep.

"I hope you aren't falling asleep on post Norio?" the black-haired one said to the now identified brown-haired.

Norio seemed to get upset about this considering his friend seemed to be slurring his words slightly. "Well Sen, I hope you aren't drunk before taking post?" he challenged.

"Oh, don't be such a worrisome bastard Norio, nothing is going to happen out here, its night time in the middle of a forest, I just have to watch out for animals at this point. Why don't you go and get some sleep now though, most of the camp has called it a night already, though Shig is still up by his fire if you want a drink." Sen advised his friend.

"Well, a quick drink before bed might warm me up, its chilly and I'm surprised we haven't gotten snow being this far north yet."

"You're not complaining about it being warmer than usual during the winter, are you? Take it as a blessing, now go on, you're relieved from duty for the night." Sen ordered.

Norio obliged and began walking back towards camp while Sen did a quick scan of the tree line. He thought he heard a rustle to his left. 'Probably an owl or something.'

As Norio was walking away, he never expected the short whistling sound before his life turned to black. A kunai was piercing through the back of his skull, and his body fell forward with a thud.

"Heh, what did you do, trip on a rock you sleepy bastard?" Sen asked his friend as he turned around to laugh at the poor man. When he turned around and saw the kunai sticking out of his friend's head, he tried to scream to sound the alarm, but a gloved hand covered his mouth from behind, and before he knew it, the blade of a tanto was drawn across his neck.

Sen gurgled into the hand as blood squirted from his jugular, his lifeblood flowing out of him, it did not take long before he succumbed to the blood loss, and died with his eyes wide open, just like his friend Norio and his pierced brain.

Naruto dropped the dead body onto the ground and just stared at it for a few seconds. He had to shake himself back into action, he had three more posts to hit before he could move inboard with the team. He quickly moved the bodies into the tree line away from the start of the clearing. 'I think I am going to be sick.' Were Naruto's thoughts before he had to swallow his own bile. He quickly tried to re-orientate himself and used the radio to inform the others that he was moving to his next mark. "Red here, post three eliminated and disposed of, two tangos down. Moving to four."

With that, he got a move on, and repeated this process as quickly as he could, trying to keep his deeds out of his mind.

-Break-

The Genin of team five all experience a slow down with their first kills. They managed to push over that hilltop though and carried on eliminating the guard posts. They then had snuck through the camp, snaking their way through fire pits and tents, slitting throats whenever an opportunity arose. There were only three tents that they had not hit yet, and one had their future prisoner.

Naruto could see Iroha and Tekuno now, the had the last few tents surrounded. Naruto gave some hand signals to get their attention, and then used some more to communicate that he would take the leader's tent, and that they should each clear out one of the remaining tents. They both indicated that they understood, and soon were inside the last tents. Naruto could hear the ring of steel, and the sound of dying men choking on their own blood. It was a noise he had grown all to familiar with this night. There were more bandits than their intel told them to expect, and he had killed sixteen men so far. Now he just had to capture this one man, and he could put this night behind him.

'Let's move Naruto, this is the last part of the mission.'

He moved to the entrance flab of the largest tent there, and slowly sneaked inside. He spotted a man who had fallen asleep by a candlelit desk.

'This should be easy, he is the last one alive, and should be much trouble.'

Naruto already had his tanto drawn, it being covered in blood, and having taken most his kills that night. With a burst of speed, Naruto was upon the man shrouded by the candle light, and quickly stabbed him in the side of his leg with his tanto.

The man jerked awake with a scream and near jumped out of his seat. Naruto was quick to cover his head with a cloth sack from his pouch, and to move his blade to the man's throat.

"Don't even think of moving, you are under arrest, and you will be coming with us back to our village." He informed his prisoner.

The man whimpered before screaming out for help. "INTRUDERS IN THE CAMP! SOUND THE ALARM!"

"Do you think we would be so stupid as to leave any of your friends alive? They are all dead, and you are coming with us for some interrogation and torture. Now, doesn't that sound lovely?" Naruto asked the man coldly. He wasn't in the mood after the things he had done this night, this was the easier task out of everything. He pulled his tanto away from the man's throat and bashed him in the side of the head, knocking him out cold.

Naruto secured the sack over the man's head properly now that he wasn't struggling and bound his arms behind his back. He then applied a tourniquet to the bleeding leg so that the prisoner would survive the journey back to the Leaf.

When he was done, he lifted the man over his shoulders in a fireman's carry and walked out of the tent to find his teammates. When he exited, he found them outside with their sensei waiting for him.

"I am proud of you guys, you left no survivors besides our friend here, and now we can grab some intel from this tent." Raido addressed the Genin.

"Thank you, sensei. Iroha, Tekuno, can you guys search the tent for any useful documents or maps? I'll stick with the prisoner."

"Yes Naruto." Responded Iroha with a fake smile.

"Sure thing Red." Said Tekuno rather weakly.

Those two entered the tent and it was just Naruto, Raido, and their unnamed for now guest.

"How are you feeling after everything Naruto?" Raido asked with mild concern. He had already had a talk with the other two while Naruto was rounding up their mark. The other two had some sort of grim acceptance with what had happened and were probably holding back any vomit until they had some true alone time.

'I figured he would check in on us.' Thought Naruto before he sighed.

"it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, the first two were difficult but they were over with so fast. The rest just turned into a chore at one point and that sort of scares me. Shouldn't I feel some regret over this." He asked. He had heard the whisperings of the civilians at home about him being some sort of monster, or demon. He didn't want to think that maybe they were right about him.

'I think I know where his line of thought is going.' "Not necessarily Naruto. All shinobi get used to killing quickly enough once they get to it. If they do not, they get taken off active duty forever. None of you three froze up, which means that you have the resolve and fortitude to carry out the orders our Hokage gives us. You can think of this as your final test to be deemed a true shinobi now. Sure, there will be rank tests and the likes, but you guys are just starting out, and now, you've truly gotten your hands dirty. None of you did anything wrong though, you just followed orders, and did your job. Just think of how you would feel if you decided to let any of them go and they went an killed some innocent merchant just travelling on the road?"

"That actually makes a lot of sense sensei. I think I will be fine in the long run, but right now, I just feel, weird about the whole thing." And that was the truth, Naruto didn't know how he should be feeling about everything. He had just gone numb after a certain amount of the cold-blooded killings.

"I know Naruto, you all will be fine. I believe all three of you will be amazing shinobi one day, and today cemented that theory. Let's gather your teammates, destroy the camp with a few fire jutsu and call this mission a wrap and start moving home. With the prisoner, I'll have to test all of your endurances to the max, we have to do a straight shot so this guy can get medical attention and be put into proper confinement." Raido instructed.

"Hai sensei."

-Break-

After lighting the clearing on fire, Naruto watched Raido-sensei put the flames out with a large-scale water jutsu once he thought enough of the bodies had been burnt to a crisp, they had pilled them all towards the center, with all the bandit's materials thrown into the pile with them. Not the most ceremonial of mass burials.

"Ok team five, let's get a move on towards home. The faster we get there, the faster I will let all of you go to sleep."

And they were off without a blink. Raido gave the kids a break and carried the prisoner who was still out like a snuffed candle.

Naruto was taking the time while they hopped through the trees to think everything over, and whether this life was for him.

'It's not like I really enjoyed ending their lives, but it was kind of thrilling, wondering how everything in the mission would play out. It's like a game really, a deadly one, but one that everyone gets into with an understanding. Each day may be your last, so why not do what you can to achieve your own goals, right? This gave me a valuable feel for killing, I'll have to do a lot of this throughout my career, there is no doubt about that. The ANBU kill all the time, so if they can do it, then so can I.' he reasoned with himself. After settling that issue, he hardened his resolve to his dreams. 'I will make it into ANBU, and after some years later, I will do what I can to become Hokage, and move away from hiding behind a mask, I don't want to be behind one my entire life.'

Now with that settled firmly in his mind once again, our red-headed shinobi was ready to go with the flow of the shinobi world.


	11. The Shinobi Flow

The Blazing Leaf

A/N:

I have a poll up for pairings now, but I'll keep track of things here still since this is where it started.

NarutoxIno-10 votes

NarutoxKarin-8 votes

NarutoxFu-3 votes

NarutoxYakumo-2 votes

I do like the Karin idea, Ino could be interesting to write and she is in the lead now., and Fu would be a straight up challenge. Yakumo would also be difficult I think, so therefore a lot of fun.

Sorry for the bout of absence, I went to Las Vegas with my wife last weekend, and I am currently on CompTIA's A+ certification course. No promises on when the next chapter will be done, but I'll try to be quicker about it this time.

Once again, I do not own Naruto.

Chapter Eleven: The Shinobi Flow

After completing their bandit elimination mission, Naruto and the rest of Team Five had to give a joint oral report to the Hokage. Hiruzen liked to both give a green Genin cell their first C-rank, as well as debrief them. The old Sarutobi was glad that the children did not seem to be too damaged over the events that unfolded. In his opinion, they performed admirably, and had no close calls that one would usually see from a Genin getting cold feet about the first kill. All of Team Five came back without a scratch on them, and they brought a prisoner for interrogation just like they were directed to.

"Congratulations Team Five on a successful mission. This will go down in your record jackets as another flawlessly done mission, and you will be paid accordingly straight to your shinobi accounts. I believe that two days of R&R are fair Raido-kun, I don't want to see you four looking for a mission until that time is up, am I clear?" Hiruzen asked his Jonin with a smile. 'Knowing him, if I didn't say otherwise, they would be leaving on another C-rank tomorrow.'

"Understood Hokage-sama, you three will not be required to meet in the training grounds until we are back on duty. I have nothing else for you, but if you wait outside, we can go and grab a team meal at one of the Akimichi's barbeque restaurants." Raido told his students.

Naruto and Iroha each just gave their sensei a small smile before giving the Hokage a short bow before giving one to Raido and leaving the room. Tekuno was a little more excited, and practically pranced out of the room. After they left, Hiruzen waited for Raido's individual report on the kids.

"Well Raido-kun, anything I should be worried about in regard to those three?"

"Surprisingly, no Hokage-sama. After giving each of them a short lecture on killing being the natural way a shinobi career goes, they entered a grim acceptance phase that pulled their minds out of any self-destructive rabbit holes. Tekuno and Iroha I talked to together, and I think they will be ok after spending time with their families and talking about it to them. Naruto is the main worry though. I feel like he accepted it too quickly, but it also seemed to affect him the most before I had a talk with him.''

This drew a worried look on Hiruzen's wrinkled face. "How would you say it was affecting him?"

"We both know that he hears what the villager's say about him Hokage-sama. Honestly, with how bright he is, I'm truly surprised he hasn't been able to find out about the fox on his own. I could see it in his eyes, he was worried what the villagers would think of him knowing he killed and proving them right about being a demon. I think it is time for you to tell him about his burden Hokage-sama." Raido explained more passionately than he normally would, but hey, he had kids to worry over now.

This got a long, tired sigh from Hiruzen. "I have been trying to put off telling him for so long now. I tell myself it is to protect him, to allow him to have a normal childhood at a shinobi standard at least, but we both know that never happened. Naruto has lived the life of a jinchuuriki without knowing that he is one."

He rubbed his temples, staving off the coming headache. "Take your team out for that barbeque, but tomorrow, bring Naruto here by ten AM. Myself and Kakashi will reveal what he is then."

Raido smiled a little bit, knowing that he wouldn't have to tiptoe around his red-headed student any longer, and this might help bring the kid to a level of acceptance within himself. "As you wish Hokage-sama." Was all he said with a bow before he went to go collect his Genin.

When the oaken doors to his office were closed, Hiruzen laid his forehead down on the cool surface of his desk. 'Maybe I shouldn't have waited this long to tell Naruto-kun about his burden. The boy has suffered quietly for so long. His team and that Lee kid are the only humans his own age that he interacts with. He has never even played a game with someone his age, and the time for games is over for him.' He thought. 'I should have told him as soon as he made Genin. He is mature enough to handle the knowledge, but what about the knowledge of you Minato-kun? Kushina-hime?'

The ramifications of anyone outside of a small circle of Jonin and himself could be extremely damaging for the village. The Hidden Rock or Hidden Cloud village might enter an uproar upon learning that the legacy of their boogeyman breathed. Naruto would be in a lot of danger if those villages believed a possible second "Flash" could enter the battlefield wearing a Leaf headband. 'On one side, he would be in danger, but on another, he already is. The boy is no real Genin, that is true. We will need him to start training with the Kyubbi's chakra eventually, but I would like Jiraiya-kun to be on hand for that. What do I do?'

-Break-

Team Five was currently sitting down at a table at the 'Akimichi's Barbeque' and were waiting for the waiter to come over. This restaurant was shinobi clan run, and since it was in the shinobi district of the village, it was filled with plenty of shinobi eating with their friends and family right now.

After only a few minutes, a round woman with brown-hair and red swirl marks on her cheeks came over to take their order. "Welcome to 'Akimichi's Barbeque', what can we serve you today?" the woman asked them with a smile.

Raido decided to order for the entire team, having a good idea of what they wanted and needed.

"My team and I here will have two bottles of hot sake, and we will take the pork and beef premium selection for the course of our meal please." He asked the Akimichi with a small smile.

This got a surprised look from the woman, these kids looked like green Genin. "Are you sure sir? Aren't they a little young?" she asked him with some concern.

Raido just shook his head while the kids all seemed miffed on varying levels at being called young.

"They are all legal adults, and old enough to kill, which they just did on this last mission, then old enough to drink in my eyes. Please, the sake?" he asked a little more forcefully, which got the woman to go wide-eye, and bow before leaving to get them their alcohol.

Naruto had a slight scowl on his face from watching the woman. "She did realize the hitai-ate did she not? Why would she even bother asking for a confirmation?" he asked to what seemed everyone in general.

"Yeah, that was kind of annoying." Was Tekuno's agreement to the recent happening.

"Well, we are young, but I could really just use a drink right about now." Was Iroha.

Raido took in the tired faces on the kids. 'This was the most demanding mission they have had yet, and they haven't been allowed any relaxation in a while.'

"Well, either way, she will come back with the drinks soon enough. Now, how are you guys feeling after everything?" he decided to ask. They already had solo talks, now it was time for some group therapy.

This got all three of the kids to look down at the table for a little bit. Iroha was the first to respond.

"Honestly sensei, the whole way back and being on the move gave me plenty of time to sort through everything. I don't like the idea that I will have to kill again, but I can't exactly get away with never doing it again, can I?" the black-haired boy asked with a small frown.

"It is true, that if you stay in the shinobi corps, you will be required to go on kill missions again. There will be times where you will have to kill enemy shinobi, more bandits, or maybe even an innocent man, merely because he is a political or economic threat to Fire Country or the Leaf Village. You three are at the last chance to drop out, you must back out of being shinobi now though. If you wish, we can take you off active duty and get you mental health counseling. Everything is up to you three at this point." Raido explained. "You just have to weigh the pros and cons of what you hope to do with your lives, and if all the hard parts of being a shinobi are worth it."

The frown never left Iroha's face for any of that, and his teammates currently matched him in that regard. Naruto chanced a look at both of his teammates, wondering what their decisions would be. He had already come to terms with their mission, he just wasn't sure about these two. 'We have gotten pretty close over the last three months or so, and we work well together. I would hate to see them leave at this point.'

'I want to be a Kenjutsu master, and the only way to train under the best of them in the village is to be active duty. It wasn't so hard, taking lives. If it is for the good of the village, I can continue this. Besides, Naruto and Tekuno need me with them on missions.' Were the thoughts of Iroha, deciding that he would remain on as a shinobi of the Leaf.

'Those two look like they have come to a decision, and I will NOT be left behind. Besides, how else will I learn any cool Earth jutsu?' was Tekuno.

"I don't think any of us will be quitting anytime soon sensei!" was the brown-haired boys excited announcement. He got affirmative nods from his teammates, and Raido smiled at this.

The waitress finally brought over their sake and turned on their grill after telling them their meat would be right out. Raido poured a glass for the four of them and raised is in a toast. "Then to Team Five, for a successful bandit elimination mission. I'm proud of you guys."

"To Team Five!" Was the call of the Genin before they all downed the sake.

Soon enough they were enjoying a nice hot meal and joking around. While they were eating, a large group was seated next to them, and Raido knew them all, well the adults at least.

"Well if it isn't the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. I don't even remember the last time I ran into you three." Raido greeted his fellow Jonin amiably. They had worked together a few times in the past, especially with Shikaku, he was the Jonin Commander in the village after all.

Shikaku was the one that turned to see who was addressing them first. He was a man with two scars on the right side of his face, and spikey black hair done up in a ponytail. Upon seeing their fellow Jonin, he gave the man a lazy smile. "Well Raido, I see making full Jonin got you saddled with a team of your own, huh?"

This got a rare laugh out of Raido. "Ha, yeah well it isn't as bad as everyone was making it out to be. These three are damn good let me tell you." He bragged a little. The three older men near them had all had Genin teams of their own already and were now acting clan heads for their families. Jonin their age usually did more departmental work than field, but these three were a legendary combo amongst the Leaf shinobi.

Inoichi, a man with blue eyes and long blonde hair in a ponytail as well decided to join the convo as well. "Well, if they are being trained by the ever so serious Raido, I'm sure they have good reason to be good. How many D-ranks have you guys done so far? They graduated almost four months ago, right?" He teased the younger Jonin.

"Hmm, well let's see, these guys have done eighty-four of those, and we just got back from our first C-rank today." Raido answered with a sly grin. Shikaku and Inoichi each went wide-eyed while the last member of the trio finally spoke up. Choza was a heavy-set man with long brownish red hair and purple war paint on each of his cheeks.

"That is certainly a record breaker for the village. The Chunin exams are a few months away, do you plan on entering them?"

"We will see, these guys have a bit more training to get through before I make a decision on that, but it is likely." Raido explained.

"Man, makes me wonder if our kids will be entering the exams as quickly as this team, huh Shikaku?" Inoichi asked the black-haired man with a jesting elbow to the ribs.

"You troublesome blonde. Who knows, its up to the kids, isn't that right Shikamaru?" the man deflected the question to his son that was sitting with him. Shikamaru looked just like a miniature version of his father, except he lacked the scars on his face. He held the same tired and lazy look that the older Nara did.

"Do I look like one that would want to compete in the Chunin exams with a team that does as much as this one does? Sounds like they do way too much work and never relax, sounds troublesome to me." The boy complained, getting amused looks from the Genin of Team Five.

"Why do you have to be so lazy Shikamaru!? If we end up on a team together and you cost us the Chunin exams with that attitude I am going to whoop your sorry hide!" a girl with long blonde hair and light blue eyes that Team Five could only assume was Inoichi's daughter, chided the lazy Nara. It seemed the Yamanaka heiress was a little livelier than her father usually was.

The third academy student at the Ino-Shika-Cho table looked like a miniature version of Choza except he had shorter spiky brown hair and was constantly munching on a bag of ships since coming into the restaurant. He also had red swirl marks on his cheek instead of purple lines going across them. The boy didn't say anything, he just kept on eating and watching.

"Lighten up Ino, you troublesome blonde. Why do you have to be so loud?" Shikamaru asked the girl, causing a tic-mark to appear on her brow.

This got laughs from the older Ino-Shika-Cho trio and got the girl too look sheepish about her outburst. "As I'm sure you can guess, these three graduate next year. Ino over there is my daughter, the black-haired boy is Shikaku's son, Shikamaru, and Choji is Choza's boy." Inoichi explained to the members of Team Five. "Now, we know your sensei, who are you three?" He asked the Genin with a warm smile.

Tekuno jumped at the chance to speak to some legendary Jonin. "My name is Tekuno Ise!" he nearly shouted. This earned him a light smack on the back of his head, courtesy of Iroha. "I apologize for our excitable teammate. My name is Iroha Raigan. It is good to meet you." Iroha tried to save some face in the situation.

Naruto spoke up next. "And my name Is Naruto Uzumaki. I am hoping sensei will enroll us in the Chunin exams personally, these D-ranks can be rather tiring." The red-head said with a small smile. 'They are shinobi, so they are less likely to hate me.' He thought to himself. And it turned out he was right.

"That they are Naruto-san, that they are!' Choza boomed with a laugh. "I can't wait until these three brats are doing them and understand being a shinobi isn't all about travel and excitement."

"Now wait a minute! The missions can't be that bad, can they?" Ino asked her father with an incredulous look on her face. All throughout the academy and growing up in a shinobi clan she had been regaled with tales about all the amazing feats shinobi were capable of. She didn't understand why this Genin team was complaining about the easier tier of missions as opposed to the harder ones.

Inoichi answered his daughter with a patient smile. "Well sweetheart, we will leave that as a little secret for when you graduate, ok?"

"I can say though Ino-san, that D-ranks are nothing to look forward to. C-ranks are a bit more exciting, but they are also dangerous in comparison. You'll know what we mean if you graduate next year." Naruto offered to the blonde girl.

Ino merely scoffed at the red-head. "Please, me graduating is a sure thing. My main competition being Forehead, and the timid Hyuga, I'll probably be Kunoichi of the year. I'm sure these D-ranks aren't anything to complain about, and you all are just being lazy."

Naruto and the rest of his team just laughed internally to that. The shared thought of 'She'll learn the hard way I guess.' Being passed around each shinobi's mind. "Well Ino-san, I was my years Rookie of the Year, and I can say even for me, the D-Ranks are just boring and monotonous. The only reason Raido-sensei has us do so many is, so we have a nice paycheck every week on top of our training schedule."

Ino saw the red-head's teammates and sensei nodding in confirmation, and that kind of left her a bit downtrodden. She hoped they were just messing with her because she was an academy student. "Well even if you are your rookie of the year, that doesn't mean you could match up to my Sasuke-kun!"

Nobody really knew what prompted the blonde to burst out about the last Uchiha, but it brought a sweat drop from all the males that knew her, and skeptical glances from Team Five. Tekuno came to his teammates defense for that barb. "Easy now blondie. Naruto here beat out Neji Hyuga for the top spot, and he is your age, he graduated a year early you know. If your Uchiha is so great, why didn't he enroll when Naruto did?" He asked with a scowl. If the blonde downplayed Naruto's skills, then she was downplaying all of Team Five as a whole.

The three academy students were all shocked at that. They didn't even know that that was allowed in the village. "So, you are saying that the red-head should have graduated with us?" asked Shikamaru. He didn't understand why anyone would do extra work to graduate early. He was completely perplexed by this.

Ino looked like she just had a lemon forcibly shoved into her mouth. That was a hard thing to think of a comeback for. 'If this kid is our age, why did he graduate with an older class? In fact, he must have been with them his entire time in the academy.'

Choji was surprised, but it didn't exactly bother him too much. Some people were just good at the shinobi arts, and besides, it was only one year early, it wasn't anything drastic.

"He would have, if he had enrolled into the academy a year later than he did, yes. The Hokage himself enrolled Naruto though." Iroha chipped into the defense of his teammate.

Now that rose the academy students' eyebrows. If the kid had the backing of their Kage, just who was he? They had heard of a red-headed Uzumaki orphan that all the kids in the village were told to avoid like the plague, and if it was this kid, that rose a question as to why. If he was a talented shinobi and had the Sarutobi clans favor, he couldn't exactly be as bad of news as everyone says.

At this point, Raido and the other Jonin decided to intervene before too many questions got asked. Inoichi knew his daughter was stubborn, and left unattended, would rib the poor orphan for more details. Shikaku also knew that his son hated puzzles and rarely left any unsolved. They were one of the few things that got his lazy ass in gear.

"That's enough now, my team and I are going to get back to our meal now guys, we have a couple of days off to get started on." Said Raido.

Choza responded with a smile. "Well, your meal is on the house for finishing your first C-rank guys, I own the building after all. Enjoy the rest of your evening." The giant of a man wished his comrades. Once pleasantries were over, Team Five finished their meal and drinks and went their separate ways excluding Raido and Naruto.

-Break-

"So, what did you want to talk about Raido-sensei?" Naruto asked his Jonin commander, curiosity evident on his whiskered face. He had taken his facemask off upon entering his apartment that his sensei had followed him to for a discussion.

Raido took a deep breath, preparing himself. He knew he didn't have to tell the kid anything himself, but he felt he should brace the kid a little bit for what he was walking into tomorrow with his meeting with Hokage-sama and Kakashi.

"Well, you see Naruto. Tomorrow you are needed in the Hokage's office, regardless of your day off. Hokage-sama has some news that will probably explain a lot of the problems you have suffered in life, and I wanted to properly warn you. I need you to prepare yourself for the news you are about to receive so that you aren't to devastated. I need you to remain a functioning member of the team, and you're my student now, I'd be a terrible teacher if I ever left you unprepared for any situation at all."

Naruto frowned at this. 'All of the problems I've suffered? Does he mean I'll be learning why the villagers all hate me?'

"How big of news are we talking hear sensei?"

"Probably as big as you are currently thinking inside of your head right now. There are a lot of secrets that revolve around you that are matters of delicate village and national security. Some of the stuff you find out you will probably not be allowed to tell your teammates. You will be learning of an S-class village secret." Raido told his Genin sternly. He needed to truly impress the importance of the situation here.

Naruto matched the serious face on his sensei's own. If Hokage-sama was finally trusting him with this knowledge of his own life, he supposed it would need to be handled as carefully as Raido-sensei seemed to be urging. "I understand sensei. What time is the Hokage expecting me?"

"Ten AM. I will be there, as well as Kakashi. We already are in on the secret you will be told. I hope you don't hold it against us when you find out, but it was truly a matter of security Naruto. You should know how serious that made the situation."

"I will try to be understanding when I find out sensei. You are making it sound like I'll blow a gasket upon finding out though, not the most reassuring of techniques." Naruto teased with an ornery smile.

With that, the student and teacher said their evening goodbyes, and got ready for the coming day.

-Break-

Naruto was currently sitting down in one of the comfy chairs across from the Hokage's desk. The old village leader was sitting there, smoking his pipe, and was flanked on either side by his two teachers. Kakashi was on the man's right, and Raido was to his left.

"So, what is this all about Hokage-jiji? How come I need to be briefed without the remainder of my team?" he decided to ask.

His surrogate grandfather just looked grim at this question. "Naruto, the reason your team isn't here is because I have two things to bring you into the loop on today. One of those things, it will be your choice of whether to tell your team or not. The other, you will not be allowed to disclose to anyone until you have reached the rank of Chunin. Am I understood so far?" He lectured seriously, more seriously than Naruto could ever remember seeing the kind old man. Naruto just nodded his understanding and waited for the explanation to begin.

Hiruzen seemed to be growing more tired by the second. "Naruto, what day did the Kyubbi attack this village?"

Naruto just looked at him strangely for a moment before responding. "It attacked on Ten October, my birth…day." A far away look entered the Genin's eyes as he thought of the complications of that fact. The Jonin and Kage could only watch sadly as the boy worked it out for himself.

'If I was born on the same day as the attack, and the villagers whisper that I am a demon and ostracize me, then could it mean that I am it? Is this why I am hated!' He was slightly panicking now.

"Hokage-jiji, I'm not the Kyubbi, right?" he asked, uncertainty dripping from every word.

This got a humorless snort from both Kakashi and Raido. They figured the kid would assume something like that, and they were correct. Hiruzen just gave them a hard look that silenced them quickly enough. "No, Naruto-kun, you are not the Fox. You are tied to it though. Do you remember what a Jinchuuriki is?"

"Um, I don't think we covered it in the academy, but I remember coming across it during my individual studies. Aren't they containers of some sorts? Using fuinjutsu I believe?"

"You are certainly on the right track Naruto-kun. Jinchuuriki are certainly created using fuinjutsu, but also a human sacrifice. A jinchuuriki is a human container, used to seal a bijuu away, and capable of harnessing the tailed-beast's power. They are generally weapons of deterrence to avoid conflict between villages." Hiruzen explained. "The reason I am telling you this, is because the Yondaime Hokage did not kill the Kyubbi. He merely made a human sacrifice, out of you, to protect the village from its rampage all those years ago."

Naruto was quiet as he tried to process that information. 'Well, at least I'm not the fox, but… "Why was I chosen to be sacrificed Jiji?"

'And there is the other question.' Thought the Hokage. "That is because, Minato-kun only trusted yourself to carry on with this burden, and to protect the village for the rest of your life."

"But why though? What made me so special that I was the best choice." Naruto pressed harder.

Hiruzen sighed deeper, he had already come to peace with knowing what Naruto would be told today. "Minato chose you to be the defender of the village and its sacrifice, because your mother, Kushina Uzumaki, was the jinchuuriki to the fox before you. And not only that, who better could a Hokage trust to carry such a burden, then his own son, Naruto-kun?" 'There, the bombshell has been dropped.'

Kakashi and Raido were both looking at their Kage with wide eyes. They had known that Naruto would be told about the Kyubbi today, but they had not been expecting his other dark secret to be revealed to him just yet.

Naruto was just staring at the man he could call his grandfather in complete shock. 'I'm, his son?'

The room remained silent for who knows how long. None of the adults dared to speak before Naruto could come to terms with what he just heard, but they were beginning to get nervous. They got even more so, once Naruto began chuckling humorlessly. Kakashi was the one who decided to address this occurrence. "What are you laughing about Naruto-kun?" he asked his surrogate little brother, voice laced with concern.

"Kukuku, oh it's just too rich Kakashi-Niisan. Tell me, do the villagers know that they are treating the son of their beloved Yondaime worse than scum?" Naruto asked while wiping a tear from his eye from chuckling a little too hard. He did find this funny. The village had scorned him all his life, and he decided to become a defender of its people, yet he already was this entire time. The best part was that they did treat him like shit for it. It was just beautiful irony that he was the son of their hero as well.

Kakashi and the other two older males sweat dropped. They had been getting a bit concerned there, but it seems like Naruto had a sense of humor after all. "No Naruto-kun, only really high up Jonin, some counsel advisors, and the Hokage know about your father."

"Well that just makes it better. Well, I guess I should ask, why was all of this kept from me? It would have been nice to have been told sooner."

Here Hiruzen interjected again. "Well you see, it was my decision. I felt that if it was known that you were the son of the Yellow Flash, then you would be a target for either Stone or Cloud shinobi looking for revenge. As for being a jinchuuriki, it was just a matter of national security, the only reason the village populace is aware is because someone leaked it out. We of course had the traitor executed after that, but the S-ranked secret was out of the bag after that. The only way I could try to give you a normal childhood after that was to make sure the younger generation never knew of your burden until you were ready to disclose that information."

"Well, you succeeded in making sure that nobody else knew about what I contained, that was for sure. The problem is that all of the parents scorned me, so the children did as well. A classic case of monkey see, monkey do." Was Naruto's humorless reply.

"Yes, that does indeed seem to be the case, I will say though, you surprise me once again with the level of maturity you are showing in this situation Naruto-kun. I can say that without a doubt, your parents would be so proud of who you have become. They loved the idea of being parents more than anything and could not wait for your arrival into this world."

A small smile came to Naruto's face to this response, but there was another think eating at his mind now that he knew the truth. "Do you think my parents would have continued loving me, after the sealing of the fox into me that is?" he asked meekly, something rare fore him, and it pulled at the older men's heartstrings seeing him this way.

Kakashi was the one to answer this in place of his Kage. "I was your father's student Naruto, and I looked up to him like he was my father himself. I can say without a doubt that yes, he would have loved you unconditionally, that was just the type of man he was. Your mother isn't even a question. She was the jinchuuriki before you were, do you think she would end up holding that against you?"

'Ok, I don't know why u didn't think of that.' "No Kakashi-Niisan, she wouldn't, I guess that was a stupid question, wasn't it?" he asked jokingly. His adoptive brothers' words doing what they were intended to and pulled him out of some of his darker thoughts concerning his parents.

"Did my parents leave anything to me though? Anything at all that I could remember them by?" was his next question.

This brought Hiruzen back into the spotlight. "Well, yes there are a few things that you can have of theirs Naruto. When you are made Chunin, I will have declared you strong enough to defend yourself, and you won't need a Jonin with you all of the time, so the deal is that you can take control of your parents' properties and titles once you reach the rank. I know that may seem like a long time, but for now, I think letting you have their notes on their specialties and a couple of their jutsu would be ok."

"Well, that just gives me an even greater reason to convince Raido-sensei that Team Five is ready for the Chunin exams coming up within the next few months. Isn't that right, Sensei?" Naruto said with a challenging grin towards the scarred Jonin.

Raido smirked in return. "We will have to see Naruto; might mean I will have to go extra hard on you guys during training. Think you and the other two are up for it?"

Naruto mock scoffed. "Please Sensei, we all know you are going to be entering us, you have a Genin team working on elemental manipulation of all things."

The three adults all laughed at that. Team Five really was a pull away from the norm. While it wasn't unusual for a veteran Genin to begin working on advanced chakra manipulation techniques and control, the rate at which these rookies were progressing was scary sometimes.

"I believe you may be right about that kid." Was Raido's mirth filled response.

"I don't mean to boost your ego with this Naruto-kun, but you alone are more than ready for Chunin rank right here and now. The exams are the only way we can promote you outside of wartimes though, per the Daimyo. Your teammates are close, and I'm sure they will be ready soon, but the exams must be taken as a team. They need to be ready just as much as you do, otherwise none of you will progress through the exams very far." Was Kakashi's input.

"This is true Naruto-kun, but, asides from your rank, we were discussing your inheritance, I am willing to give you some of both your mother's, and your father's journals regarding their shinobi careers and their jutsu scrolls. I won't give you any of the advance material until you get promoted, but this should be enough to tide you over until then." Hiruzen brought the conversation back on track.

Naruto physically brightened at that. New techniques and shinobi knowledge were the usual things that always got a smile on the boy's face, now they would be from his parents making it a double whammy on the happiness and eagerness spectrum for the kid. "What exactly are these journals and scrolls on Hokage-jiji?"

Hiruzen gave him an indulgent smile. "Well Naruto-kun, your mother and father both were two of the premier fuinjutsu specialists this village has ever had to offer. The material I will give you will get you started down that path, as your mother's clan were specialized in it as well. I thought you like might to reconnect with your roots, now that you know them?"

"Fuinjutsu! Raido-sensei! You already hinted at this being something I should look into, didn't you!?" Naruto accused the leader of his team. They had a talk about the Yondaime on their bandit elimination mission, and now he felt like his teacher had tried to steer him in the direction of his parents.

The other two adults each looked towards Raido with raised, questioning eyebrows. Raido got a bit defensive over the speculation. "What was I supposed to do? The kid was asking about the second and third shinobi world wars, speaking of that Hokage-sama, shouldn't you mention more about his mother's clan?"

That properly distracted Hiruzen and Kakashi both, each turning back to Naruto rather sheepishly. Hiruzen was the one to speak again. 'My, Raido-kun, I do believe you are correct. Naruto, some things you should know about your mother's clan, would be that the majority of them were all wiped out during a massive battle during the second war."

This brought a sorrow look to Naruto's face. He had no blood relations that he knew of, and to hear that this was due to an old war left him down. "Do you know what happened Jiji? Did they all die in service to the village? Or were they targeted the way Itachi took out the Uchiha?"

"Actually Naruto-kun, your clan wasn't even from the Leaf village, they were the ruling clan over another country, called the Whirlpool, and their shinobi village carried that name as well. They were targeted by Stone, Sand, and the Mist villages during the second war. Because of their sealing abilities, they destroyed the majority of the invasion force before the survivors were scattered to the wind. Their sacrifice eventually led to the war being won by us, and that is why Chunin and Jonin flak jackets still carry your clans crest." Hiruzen told him, a grave smile of remembrance on his face.

Naruto really looked the saddest any of the adults had ever seen him at this point. "So, they are all gone then? I'm the last one?" he asked quietly.

"We do not believe so Naruto-kun, some of your family is just spread out across the shinobi nations. I do not know of any others besides yourself though. When you are older, you can apply for clan head rights for the Uzumaki name, as your father wasn't a clan child himself, and start rebuilding your clan though." Hiruzen tried to console, at least a little bit.

This didn't exactly do much to cheer Naruto up, but he wasn't one to feel sorry for himself. "I think I would like that Jiji, after a successful career as an ANBU first though." He joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Now, what were these things of my parents that I could have? Are they here?" he asked.

"why yes, they are Naruto-kun." Hiruzen replied as he reached into a drawer of his desk and pulled out a small sealing scroll. "In here, I have taken the liberty of stowing your mothers and fathers notes on when they first started learning the art of sealing themselves. This should be a good place for you to start. It also has information on your mother's unique bloodline ability which was called Adamantine Sealing Chains. They were sturdy things she could make protrude from her body, and used them as weapons to control tailed beasts, through sealing, as well as fight multiple opponents effectively. We do not know if you will ever grow up to have the ability, one she said came about during the middle of puberty for her, which means if you will, they should develop within the next two or three years for you. The information should be a good guide to train with them if you do though."

"My mother had a kekkei genkai?" was Naruto's shocked response.

"Yes Naruto-kun, it didn't manifest often, but your clan was very well known for them, as well as the sealing expertise, and your red hair as well." Kakashi added in. "She went by the nickname of the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero in the shinobi bingo books."

Naruto laughed at that. "Haha, sounds like mom had a temper just from that name."

The adults laughed as well. "That is right Naruto-kun, Kushina was one of the finest kunoichi I have ever had the pleasure of being in command over. She was a true village asset. She would be extremely happy if you developed an interest in Fuinjutsu, as well as if you developed her kekkei genkai as well." Said Hiruzen.

"Well, if it is a specialty of my clan, and my dad was good at it too, it should be worth learning. I want to recreate his Flying Thunder God technique one day, but I guess I can't be the second Yellow Flash with my hair, huh? I hope I develop the Adamantine chains as well, that sounds like an amazing ability to have." Was Naruto's response.

"I am glad to hear that Naruto-kun, here you go." Hiruzen said as he handed the sealing scroll over to the red-headed boy. "Sealing is difficult though, so be sure to take your time when learning about it, as for the kekkei genkai, you will find out in time my boy."

"Thank you Jiji. Is there anything else I should know right now?" Naruto asked after stowing the scroll into his utility pouch.

"As a matter of fact, there is. One of my students, the Sannin, he was your father's sensei, and was like a father to Minato. Minato even named you after a character from the man's first written novel. Jiraiya of the Sannin is your god-father, and in about a year should be back from a long-term assignment to finally meet you. He will be more than willing to train you on Fuinjutsu when you meet, considering he is the villages seal master." Hiruzen added in.

This floored Naruto. "I have a god-father too! Man, anymore surprises guys?" Naruto jokingly asked around the room. The adults all just chuckled and shook their heads.

"I think that just about covers it Naruto, why don't you head on out and go find something you would like to do. Remember, you can tell your teammates about being a jinchuuriki, but absolutely no one is to find out about your parents yet, got it?" said Raido.

"I understand sensei, good bye Hokage-jiji, Kakashi-niisan, Raido-sensei, I will see you all later." Was Naruto's acceptance at the dismissal, and promptly left the tower.

After he was gone, Hiruzen addressed his two Jonin. "Well, that could have gone much worse. He certainly knows how to flow with the punches the shinobi world throws at him." The two men only grimly nodded in agreement.

And so, our jinchuuriki friend knew what he was, and who he was. Now he had a knew focus for his training, he was his parent's legacy after all.

A/N:

Ok, I wasn't sure about where to go with this chapter, but some of you were asking about when Naruto finds out about the fox, so here you go. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, next one might be a little more action packed, this one felt a bit boring so sorry about that, no action.


	12. Legacy

The Blazing Leaf

A/N:

NarutoxIno- 9 votes

*NarutoxKarin- 11 votes

I don't see Fu or Yakumo catching up any time soon. If you want to vote, this chapter here is where I will draw it closed. This way, I'll have time to plot out how either relationship will happen. Ino will be the easiest since she is, A, in the village, and B, has already run into Naruto. You all have until I publish the next chapter to cast a vote. Just because a name has more votes doesn't mean that will be my choice, I am reading all your reasonings and that has a lot of weight to the pick as well.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to Beta though?

Anyways guys, here is my longest chapter yet, I hope you enjoy. As always, I do not own Naruto, this is for fun, and trying to build up my ability as a writer. Any typos, I do check for them, but it is so hard to spot all of them, so please bear with them, thanks.

Chapter Twelve: Legacy

Naruto woke up the next day as early as he ever does and started to get ready for morning training. Raido-sensei didn't require them to meet up, but training was all he ever really had to do besides studying scrolls. He was currently replaying yesterdays events in his mind's eye.

'I can't believe I am the Yondaime's son.' He thought to himself, still a little shocked by the revelation. Now that he thought about it, he did resemble Minato Namikaze a great deal, it was just his hair that threw the resemblance out the window.

'That must have been what prevented everyone else from noticing I guess.' He mused. 'Well, that, and the fear and hate.' Now that he knew the exact reasoning for the villager's hate and scorn, he could deal with it a lot easier. Sure, it sucked that it prevented him from having a normal childhood, but if he acted like a child should when he was younger, he wouldn't be as prepared for the shinobi world as he was.

After getting ready and making sure he had all the necessary gear for his morning work out he grabbed a couple of energy bars and left his apartment. A shunshin saw him in his teams' grounds quickly, and he started his morning off as he always would.

-Break-

A couple of hours later, Naruto was breaking away from the grounds to go shower and grab some lunch. It was a day off, which meant he could go and enjoy some Ichiraku's ramen. Missions had put a strain on how often he could get his noodle fix.

His training exercises went the way they usually do, only he had upped his weights this morning, not expecting another C-ranked mission anytime soon. He went up just another five pounds for each, bringing him to one-hundred and fifteen per limb.

He decided to take it easy on his way back to his apartment and walked his way home. When passing down the streets of the Leaf, he ran into a pair of people he knew, and hadn't seen in a few weeks now. Coming his way were Rock Lee and TenTen. Rock Lee spotted Naruto first, but it took awhile since he was wearing the facemask that Kakashi had gifted him.

"Naruto-kun! I didn't recognize you with that cool, hip face mask you have hidden behind! That is not very youthful my friend, how are we supposed to recognize you now!?" Lee greeted his friend with exuberance.

TenTen shook her head at her teammate's antics. "Maybe by the unique red hair that seems to sit atop of his head Lee?" she chided. She turned back to the red-head and smiled in greeting. "Hiya Naruto. How have you been since graduation?"

"I have been alright, I get along with Iroha and Tekuno pretty easily. You guys are the only other team that passed the Jonin's test though, so you're our only competition." Naruto finished with a smirk. "And last I checked, we have you guys beat by a little bit right now."

"Yosh! This is true, you and the rest of team five have done a great number of missions since we parted ways. Us on team nine though have been training very strenuously and should be more than a match for you and your team Naruto-kun." Lee boasted, clearly not aware just what Raido-sensei put the red-head and his compatriots through. Naruto's response was to just give the boy a small smile before speaking up.

"Well Lee, I am not sure what your sensei has been showing you guys, but Raido-sensei is no push over when it comes to being a task master. Sensei thinks we may already be ready for the Chunin exams after all." Naruto boasted back. Usually he would feel something as petty as this would be beneath him, but Lee and himself had a friendly rivalry when it came to Taijutsu. TenTen was the one to take some offense to this though.

"Are you kidding me? You and those other two are already being cleared for the exams!? It's only been a few months!" the panda-haired Genin exclaimed.

"Well TenTen-san, my team has a different specialty than yours does. Ours is geared towards assassination, which puts us on the fast track for ANBU. The way it was explained to me was that Hokage-sama wants our team to get through early so we can get put into specialties quicker. Your team is more of a heavy hitting combat team, so they want you guys to get more experience before going to the exams. That is not to say that you three cannot become ANBU, but you are geared more towards being the faces of our graduating class, getting clients you have to interact with more face to face than we would for higher level missions." Naruto tried to explain to the girl. Raido-sensei and Kakashi-Niisan had given a brief explanation to him before on team specializations, and knowing that Iroha, Tekuno, and himself were on an assassination team, one that rarely appeared in the lineup, the Hokage would be trying to speed roll them through the promotion process to get them the specialized training they required.

This seemed to appease the older girl a little bit, but she still felt riled up over the fact. "Just because you guys fall into a different categorization than we do doesn't exactly make it fair that you guys can be put up for promotion before us though." She countered.

"I do not believe it is that unfair TenTen-chan! After all, it means that we end up getting the more youthful missions than Naruto-kun and his teammates do! I personally am not geared towards assassination, and truthfully only you on our team would be geared towards that with your range." Lee interjected, trying to calm his teammate down. He personally as much as he loved a challenge to test his flames of youth, was not in a rush to get promoted anytime soon. He enjoyed working under Guy-sensei and that may not be as easy if he was a Chunin so soon. He would be shipped off on border patrol missions and the like if he were to take a shot at promotion and succeeded, and he had so much to learn still.

This did seem to calm TenTen down a little, and she just sighed in resignation. "Well, I guess you are right, and any team with the Rookie of the Year on it should be talented enough to make it through the exams so soon. So, what are your guys stats now, and what have you been working on?" she asked.

Naruto thought for a second before answering, wondering how much he should actually disclose to her. "Well, TenTen-san, we are at eighty-four D-ranks and one C-rank right now. As for what we are working on, all I can disclose is our individual talents, and of course, team formations, which I am sure gets drilled into you just as much by Guy-san."

TenTen frowned at the small amount of information revealed, but she couldn't exactly fault the red-head. They were shinobi, and if Guy-sensei changed his mind and entered them in the Chunin exams, they would be the boy's competition, so it made sense not to reveal anything.

"Well, I guess that makes sense, it has only been a few months now. Well Lee and I have to get to the training grounds soon, we are getting off our lunch break and should be getting back to our training grounds for individual training." She told the Uzumaki.

Lee nodded in agreement before giving Naruto an excited farewell. "Yes, this is true, I will race you their TenTen-chan! Goodbye Naruto-kun! We should spar sometime soon, I would love to test my flames of youth against your cool hip self!" and with that, Lee was off like a rocket and kicking up dust down the street, getting a few stall vendors to glare after the boy.

TenTen was annoyed that her teammate took off without enough warning for the race. "Wait! Get back here you idiot! Sorry! Goodbye Naruto!" she said before she was off after her teammate.

This left Naruto alone in the street once again, and he just chuckled at his old classmates' antics. It seemed as if Lee had not changed one bit since graduation. Might Guy really had a huge impact on the kid. 'And he sees me as his rival since I was taught by Kakashi-Niisan, and him and Guy-san are rivals as well.' He sighed as he took off once more down the road towards his apartment.

-Break-

A while later saw our red-headed Genin taking his seat at Ichiraku's Ramen. After settling in, he greeted the stall owner who had his back to him currently, chopping up some ingredients. "Hey Teuchi-jiji! How about three bowls of Miso ramen?!"

The stall vendor turned around and noticed perhaps his number one customer getting there just before the lunch rush. "Naruto-kun! How good to see you, how was your mission? I haven't seen you in a few days, so I assume you were out of town?" Teuchi asked the boy.

"Yeah, I was off towards the northern border, some bandits were making some trouble for merchant caravans. I probably can't tell you any more than that. How have things been here since I've been away?" Naruto asked the older brunette.

"Hmm, sounds like you had one of those make or break missions in your career already. I'm glad to see it doesn't appear to be affecting you too much. As for here, business has been good as it has ever been! I wouldn't be surprised if we won't have enough surplus revenue to expand into an actual building soon instead of operating out of a stall!" Teuchi excitedly told the boy. The stall truly was doing well, especially with people easing off of Naruto as time went on, and not caring as much that he frequented the stall. The earlier years were a bit rougher on Teuchi and his daughter Ayame, but they refused to turn the poor boy away.

Naruto was truly glad that the Ramen vendor's luck had turned around over the years. He could remember that the stall seemed to be struggling just a couple of yeas ago, and he knew that it was partially his own fault. Hopefully soon, he could change the mind of the villagers, and all of the hate and fear would be behind the village.

"That is good to hear Teuchi-jiji. Hey, where is Ayame-neechan?" Naruto asked, and no sooner than he did, the brown-haired girl walked out from the back of the stall, she had probably been doing dishes.

"I am right here Naruto-kun! Welcome back! We missed having you here over the past couple of days." Said Ayame. While Naruto did not eat at the stall every day, since it would probably be unhealthy to do so, he made it a point to at least drop in on the owners as often as possible.

"Well, like your dad guess, I was on a mission away from the village. I won't go into details though. Anyways, how have things been going?" Naruto asked the older girl.

"Oh! Things have been great, Iruka-kun has started coming more often than usual and him and I are always having a good chat." Ayame gushed. Naruto was aware that the girl had a crush on his old academy instructor and had for a while now. "Have you found any girls that take your notice yet Naruto-kun?" she asked coyly.

Naruto didn't even blush at the question, and just answered honestly. "Well Ayame-neechan, not really. It is too early in my career to think of taking time away from training and missions to think of relationships, so that will be held off for a while."

Ayame was a little peeved to hear this. She had been waiting for Naruto to get older and start noticing girls so that she could tease him properly, just like he did whenever he caught her making eyes at Iruka.

"Gosh Naruto, you don't make this any fun for me at all!" she teased instead. Naruto just shrugged his shoulders in response, Teuchi had finally arrived with his first bowl of Miso.

"Doesn't bother me much, I have no time for frivolities like relationships right now. Maybe after I get out of ANBU or whatever."

"Well fine, I'll let you enjoy your noodles now, you glutton." Ayame said as she ruffled the boy's hair. 'A damn shame that he isn't on the market yet, all the girls his age will be after him soon enough once they meet him. He'll be beating them away with sticks!" she crowed in her mind.

Naruto was unaware to the older girls' inner thoughts, and was happily slurping on the salty noodles, the food of the gods! Little did the young Genin know, but his surrogate sister was right on one aspect. He was going to end up attracting a lot of attention soon.

-Break-

It was the end of the day, and Naruto was on his way home after going over he rest of his routine that he did while in the academy. After entering his home, he locked his door and stripped to enter the shower, throwing his clothes into the laundry hamper as one would. He liked to keep the place neat, cutting down on his time to find things around the place whenever he was in a rush.

After a quick wash off, he put on a pair of gray sweats and busied himself in the kitchen, making chicken and rice with cheese covered broccoli for the night. It was an easy enough meal to make, and he always had left overs for the next night, or lunch if he didn't want to spend any money. Money wasn't exactly an issue now, with all the D-ranks his team did, he had a fairly large savings account set up, and more than enough in his checking and toad-wallet. He had simply engrained frugalness into his brain early on since he was living off of a stipend and lived alone for that matter.

Once the food was finished, he served a plate for himself, and stowed the rest away in take-away containers for the next day. After setting his plate on the table, he made his way over to his bookshelf and grabbed the scrolls that the Hokage had given him the day before. 'I might as well get a start on reading on these journals.' He thought to himself as he took the sealing scroll and unleashed its contents. He decided to start off with the journal that was labeled on the inside cover as his mother's Genin notes.

He read through it as he ate his dinner and was surprised at the level his mother had been at during her Genin career. When his parents were young, the academy graduation was a little bit lower, and the village was at war. Her basic skills were nothing to sneeze at for her age, but Naruto got an appreciation for what his mother was capable of through seals all the same.

The journal didn't detail any specialized techniques that his mother really knew, besides a mention that she had recently realized she had the ability to use their family's Adamantine chains. The only other thing of real note was her notes on sealing, which were vast for someone so young, and the humorous portion of where she called Naruto's dad a complete wimp. Naruto really thought this was funny, since his dad did go on to become the Hokage of all things, something his mother expressed was her dream to become in the academy, since she was from a foreign allied village when she got there.

As he read on, Naruto wondered how he was going to live up to his mother's, and apparently his father's specialty.

-Break-

The next day saw Team Five going about their usual schedule bright and early. The resumes their usual training in the morning, and then spent a bit of the afternoon dedicated to a couple of D-ranked missions. It seemed that somehow, they ended up having to catch Tora for both, as the damned demon cat escaped his mistress almost as soon as he was relinquished over to her. The Hokage charges the Fire Daimyo's wife for a second mission at least, so the team would be compensated properly.

With their daily missions done, Raido had the team return to their training ground so that they could go over Taijutsu, formations, and then individual training.

After a few spars, all of which if Naruto was in, he dominated, the team ran through some drills for different scenarios, a clone of Raido being their target.

When it came to individual training, the three Genin split across the training grounds for areas best suited for them. For Tekuno, that seemed to be literally anywhere, since all he had to do was use earth, which was, well…. Everywhere.

Iroha moved over to a more open space to work on his kenjutsu katas until Raido-sensei could make his way to him for a spar and individual advice.

Naruto, he walked his way over towards the little pond that they used for chakra control training and water-surface combat training.

Naruto was usually the last to get attention from his sensei regarding this portion of their training, and this continued to be the case today. Raid-sensei was probably working with Tekuno right about now on his earth manipulation, and that left the red-head to his own devices for at least another two hours.

Naruto assumes his usual sitting position near the pond as he tried to focus water into a leaf, he grabbed off of the forest floor. He tried clearing his mind, to see if that could bring any help to the situation for learning to manipulate water.

'I just need to let go a little bit. Fire is chaotic, where water is tranquil, and soothing. If I can just let go a little, I should in theory be all set to learn this.' He thought to himself.

He used the meditation and centering techniques taught to him and tried to block out the rest of the world. Soon enough, all he saw was darkness, and a sinking feeling, as if he was falling.

He found himself in wat appeared to be a dark, shallow pond of a cave. He knew he was in his mind's eye but wasn't exactly sure about the surroundings he was seeing.

'Did I fall asleep somehow during meditation?' were his thoughts, before he heard a guttural voice address him.

"**So, it seems we finally meet, doesn't it, brat?"**

The voice put Naruto on high alert immediately. Whatever that voice was, it was ominous, and he knew it was not good news. "Who's there!?" he called out, already having a good idea as to what was happening.

As it was, the voice confirmed his fears soon enough.

"**Relax mortal, it is I, the one that you jail so graciously within yourself. Come this way and you will be able to set your eyes upon me."**

Naruto followed the voice after a moment of thought, and soon came upon a dark section of the cave separated from the rest by what appeared to be iron bars. The sight he was afforded showed him he was correct in his first analysis of the situation. Before him, through the bars, he could see a couple of giant red eyes, with slits for pupils.

"So, you are the demon, you're the reason I am hated by the majority of my people?" Naruto asked the figure accusingly.

He got a throaty laugh that seemed to shake the caves rock walls in response. **"Demon? I am no demon. I am a creature born to this world by the very coveted sage that you shinobi give credit to the birth of your kind."**

Now Naruto was confused at that response. Everything he had ever been told was how evil the nine-tailed fox truly was. The Kyubbi was a construct of chakra, hell bent on death and destruction.

"What do you mean by this sage?" he asked the eyeballs of the creature who had still not revealed itself from the shadows.

"**I mean exactly as I have said, you flesh-bag. The sage of the six paths, for all rights and purposes, is my father and put me on this world to help deal with the malice and hate of the world." **Was the response to Naruto's question. He didn't exactly know how to respond to that. It went against the things that he had learned from his sensei's. and from the academy.

"If that is true, then why did you attack my village almost twelve years ago?" Naruto accused.

Upon that question, shaking could be felt throughout the cavern, and Naruto could lay sight upon a beastly fox, as tall as the Hokage monument, and as orange as falling leaves during the autumn months of the year. After getting closer to the bars and laying down to get more towards eye level with its conversation partner, the Kyubbi spoke once again.

"**I attacked after I was given free from your damnable mother and was placed under a Genjutsu by one of your villages accursed Uchiha boy. That is why I attacked your village. I did not break out of your mother's seal on purpose, if I had planned it, I would have been long gone before any of your shinobi could have reacted. I would not risk my freedom for petty revenge." **The fox said, sounding insulted at the insinuation that it would care about such things as what to itself was a small time in captivity.

Now Naruto was confused. The Kyubbi was said to be a tool of destruction, which could only be stopped by the power of his father when the time arose. Nobody knew the happenings of the night that Naruto was born in extreme detail, since all the primary witnesses had passed over to the next life. What the fox said did not add up with what he had been told.

"**Before you ask, yes, I enjoyed killing your parents, they were my enemies after all. The thing was, the confrontation between us did not have to happen. I had already become accustomed to being enslaved and was used to being sealed away. I only attacked because I was forced out of your mother's seal and was controlled by someone hell bent on the destruction of your village. It was not my own prerogative, I would have just fled, and planned for my revenge another day."** Said the fox.

"If that is true, then who's fault was it really?" Naruto interrogated, not sure with how much salt he should take anything said here.

"**That would have been a man who called himself Madara Uchiha. I thought I was rid of the red-eyed bastard long ago, when that Senju and he fought at the Valley of the End. He used his cursed eyes to place me under a Genjutsu after ripping me from your mother and set me upon the village."**

"How is that even possible? Madara Uchiha would be a walking sack of bones if he were still alive today."

The Kyubbi scoffed at the question. **"Do you expect me to know how long you pathetic humans live? My only concern is that my container continues to grow stronger, and that means you. If that damnable man still draws air, I want you to slit the throat he breathes from!" **the fox thundered.

Naruto's hair flew back from the power of the fox's lungs, its verbal roar was so great. 'Note to self, never piss off a Biju. What the hell were you thinking going up against this thing dad?'

"And exactly do you mean your container growing stronger?" he prodded, needing confirmation of were he thought the demon was going with this.

A barking laugh was he initial response, before the massive beast spoke. **"I mean, I will allow you as much of my chakra as your body can handle, and I won't try to influence your mind. I know I can not break free of this seal, and if you die, I die. Trust me, that is not a pleasant experience. When the time comes for your village to start showing you how to be an actual jinchuuriki, I will not stand in your way, your power reflects my own, and I refuse to be seen as some pitiful excuse of a warrior."**

Naruto wasn't sure if he believed what was happening. He knew he would have to learn to utilize the fox's power at one point or another, but he didn't think the fox would be HELPFUL, when the time came. He had plenty of concerns and doubts over all of this. "And how do I know that you aren't trying to trick me? How do I know that this isn't some ruse to make a jailbreak from the seal?" he asked, an eyebrow raised in challenge.

"**I'll give you credit, you aren't too much of an imbecile. The truth is, you can't know if I am tricking you or not unless you and I can come to an agreement. The seal your damned father used on me will not let me out without a seal key, one that you do not have access to. I was sealed with the help of the Shinigami, even I cannot break this prison. I just want to see the world from your senses, I wish to see the world again. Allow me this, and I will not impede you when you train to harness my chakra." **Said the fox.** "And if you could set your terrible mind into something a little livelier, that wouldn't worsen my mood and attitude towards you either." **It sniped in.

Naruto thought long and hard to what the Kyubbi had to say and thought about the points it made. On one hand, it was a chakra construct of hate and malice, one that humans were sure was hell bent on their destruction. On the other, his dad was known as one of the most renowned seal-masters the world had ever seen, and he used the death god to put the fox inside of him. He wasn't an expert, but he was pretty sure that something on the mortal plain could not trump a GOD of all things.

Coming to a decision, Naruto closed his eyes, and focuses on the lands around the Leaf village for which it got its name. When he opened them, behind the bars he could see the fox looking around itself in wonderment, taking in the knew scenery. He had changed from a cave to a large clearing inside the forests of the land of fire, with sunlight, and a large lake visible through the tree line.

"I don't trust you or your offer, but I won't let it go to waste and risk you becoming a pain in my ass because I decided to piss you off. We are stuck with each other. Enjoy the knew place, I'm out of here." Naruto address the fox before materializing out of the mindscape.

After the red-head left, the Kyubbi couldn't help but think of how much different his current container was compared to his last two. **'The brat is tolerable in comparison to those damned women he is related to. At least things should be interesting in here from now on.'**

-Break-

Naruto snapped his eyes open after forcing himself out of his mindscape. He wasn't sure if he had just dreamed the whole scenario, or if it truly happened. 'Did I get hit in the head at any point during training?' he thought to himself. He was pretty sure he hadn't, and that left the one option of the scene playing out. 'I hope I made the right decision.'

He wasn't too sure about the Kyubbi, but it was probably a good idea to keep the massive source of chakra stuck in his gut happy, as he may need the thing to save his life one day. Clearing his mind, he tried to get back to his water manipulation training. He was still making slow progress with the element, and he only hoped that he could make a breakthrough soon.

-Break-

Another three months had passed for Team Five. In that time, Tekuno had managed to complete the first stage of his earth element over a month ago. Raido-sensei had then proceeded to start teaching him two new jutsu. One being the Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, which was a D-ranked jutsu. This one allowed the user to pull a victim down into the dirt and bury them alive. This was done by the user swimming through the earth and coming up underneath an enemy.

The second technique Tekuno learned was a more defensive one. This one was the Earth Shore Return Technique. Molding chakra to form a wall section of hardened earth, the user slams their hands on the ground, and forces the block of dirt to swing up perpendicular to the terrain, and act as a wall.

The boy was no where near mastering the techniques, but he had been deemed capable enough of using them in actual combat.

Iroha had taken some time to learn lightning manipulation up to the point that he could now channel his chakra through his sword. Kakashi had still not deemed him ready for a jutsu yet but said that he was close. This was fine with the dark-haired Genin since Raido-sensei had showed him so much over the last few months regarding Kenjutsu. His handling of his sword had grown exponentially ever since he transitioned over to using a custom-made blade.

Raido-sensei had even deemed his Kenjutsu combat ready at this point, which was good, considering that they were being sent on another bandit elimination mission tomorrow.

Ever since their first successful C-Rank, Raido had ensured that once a month, Team Five would leave on a C-Ranked elimination mission. It was always the same type of mission for them, they always had to get their hands bloodied every time they left the village, the downside to being the team specializing in assassination and threat elimination.

Naruto had finally made enough progress with his water manipulation training to begin learning Water Techniques. Water had truly been a complete pain in the ass for him to learn, taking far longer than anyone had expected of the talented red-head. He was currently trying to learn a D-ranked jutsu that the Kakashi had stolen from the Mist village. It was the Hiding in Mist Technique, and the user had to fill the air with mist and control its thickness with their chakra. It was almost stupidly easy for Naruto to learn, but the problem was that it wouldn't be considered combat ready until all member of the team was deemed capable of fighting with their sight disabled. This technique may have been finished quickly, but it had more dynamics than just throwing it at the enemy and would require a lot of team drills to be considered ready by Raido and even Kakashi.

Naruto and the rest still had a great arsenal to throw at mere bandits whenever they went to the field though. This mission coming up would be their fourth C-Rank, and one more would meet their sensei's qualifications for him to enter them in the Chunin exams starting in two months.

The Exam would be held in the Sand village this year, their allies, and would be starting on June fifteenth. The village was about five days fast travel away.

The team had completed more D-ranks as well, building up their portfolios and building up decent savings accounts, all three of them, to include the slightly irresponsible Tekuno, who loved to spoil his younger cousin, Udon.

Currently, Naruto and his teammates were all submersed in the dense mist that he had created in their training ground, and they were all doing the katas to their individual Taijutsu styles. The purpose of this was to avoid getting in each other's way with all the reduced visibility, and this was only the first day they were trying this. Naruto and Iroha had been doing alright, until at one-point Tekuno had managed to orientate himself in Iroha's way, and nearly caused a collision.

Iroha was slightly aggravated by the brown-haired boy messing up his concentration. They had bene doing well, getting through fifteen minutes of uninterrupted practice. "Watch it you fool! You shouldn't be losing your focus so close to the exams!" he chastised the boy.

Tekuno was embarrassed at his hiccup and got defensive about it quick. "Lighten up a bit tight-ass, we got through that a lot longer than expected for out first time."

"Both of you stop it, and get back in position, we will start from the beginning and try again." Naruto commanded of the older boys. He was giving each of them a hard stare in turn and was releasing a small amount of killing intent. They both looked sheepish immediately over their squabbling and apologized.

"Sorry Naruto, it won't happen again." Said Iroha with one of his polite bows.

"Yeah, my bad Naruto, you're right as always." Appeased Tekuno.

Things had been a little tense over the last three months. The other two Genin felt like Naruto was hiding something from them, and after a confrontation about a month ago when they finally got fed up with his anti-social tendencies, things had been a little tense. Nothing too worrying, they still functioned like a well oil machined, but something wasn't clear among the three.

After finding out about the Kyubbi, Naruto had not deemed it necessary to tell his team yet, he wasn't exactly sure how to broach the subject, and honestly, he was afraid that they would turn on him just like the rest of the village.

After the small interruption, they got back to their katas, and tried to ease their minds for the next day, they would have to kill again soon.

-Break-

The next morning, Team Five was in the Hokage's office once again. Hiruzen had decided to personally assign Naruto's team their fourth C-ranked, having left the last two to the Chunin administrators. This one was still a C-ranked, yes, but they would be going into the Land of Waterfalls for this one. Their allies in the Village Hidden in the Waterfall had requested a team to dispose of a bandit troop expected to be twenty men large. They would send some of their own, but they were currently spread thin thanks to an incident in their village that they were keeping hush hush.

Looking over the three Genin, as well as their Jonin commander, the aged Kage couldn't help but feel pride in the coming generation of shinobi. 'This cell has done far more than any other during peace time since their inception. Three C-ranks completed already, a fourth on the way, and a total of one-hundred and twenty-seven D-ranks completed so far, and all three of them know at least one elemental affinity and can use it in combat to some extent.'

Hiruzen was truly pleased with the progress of these boys. 'They will make a fine showing during the exams this year, all three should make it to the finals, and I will be glad to move them through the ranks afterwards.'

Having gazed upon his troops long enough to get them a bit nervous, Hiruzen took pity on them and started the brief. "Well Team Five, the mission parameters are as follows. Waterfall has requested us to take out a bandit troop terrorizing their nations borders, and we will answer our allies call. Remember that you will be guests to another nation and try not to cause an incident. We can not afford to lose a strategic ally such as Waterfall, they are a buffer nation between us and the Stone village. You will be facing somewhere around twenty targets; no prisoners need to be taken. Do you accept the mission Raido-kun?" he addressed them, his eyes stopping on the Jonin for the end of the long-winded statement.

Raido nodded in the affirmative before speaking up. "Yes Hokage-sama, Team Five will be more than capable of taking care of this issue. Which area of Taki will we be dispatched to?" he asked.

"Good question, you will be along the south eastern border, the one that they share will Grass country. We expect no shinobi involvement, but the bandits have ben effecting trade between waterfall and grass for some time now."

"Thank you Hokage-sama, we shall leave within the next two hours. Team Five, you are dismissed, and should meet me at the North gate in the two hours stated. Pack for a minimum of two weeks and bring enough weaponry to down forty opponents. Naruto hear will use his sealing scrolls to stow your gear and backpacks away once we meet at the gate." Raido addressed his students.

A chorus of "Hai, sensei, good afternoon Hokage-sama" and a trio of bows where given before the boys started making their way towards the oaken doors. Before Naruto could step out, Hiruzen called to him.

"Naruto-kun, could you stay for a moment, I won't keep you too long. Raido-kun, could you leave us please?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama, don't take too long Naruto." He responded and addressed his student, before disappearing in a shunshin, something all of his Genin knew, but just thought would be rude to use when being dismissed in front of their Kage.

Now that they were alone, and Naruto had moved to sit in one of the arm chairs in front of the desk, Hiruzen got to the heart of the matter.

"So, Naruto-kun, when do you plan on informing your teammates about your burden? I did authorize you to tell whoever you deem it prudent to tell after all." Was the interrogative question.

Naruto grimaced, he had thought that this would be the issue. "I am sorry Hokage-jiji, but honestly, I am afraid that they will reject me. Can you honestly fault me for something like that?"

This got a sad smile form the older man. He really couldn't, the poor boy had enough to deal with though, on top of keeping such a secret away from his teammates. A secret that they discover on their own if a mission were to go too wrong one ay and Naruto had to call on the power of the beast. "I cannot my oy, but the truth of the matter is, that you should have faith in your teammates. Surely you see them as your friends by now?"

"I do old man, but like I said, what if they reject me?" Naruto asked dejectedly.

Hiruzen frowned at this. "Then they wouldn't be worthy of the title as friends or teammates to the great Naruto Uzumaki. Be very clear Naruto-kun, you are a hero in this village, whether everyone sees you as one or not. Even if your teammates reject you, you still have Raido, Kakashi, Iruka, the Ichiraku's, and myself to call your friends my boy. We may not seem like much but trust me when I say that as far as jinchuuriki go, you do not have it bad at all." The man lectured.

Naruto thought long and hard on what the Hokage said. It was true, he did have quite a few precious people now, plenty who he would lay his life down for, his teammates included. That was the problem though, Naruto cared for Iroha and Tekuno like possible brothers, and he was terrified that he would lose them because of the fox, regardless of whether he and it had some neutral agreement in place.

"You are right Hokage-jiji, I.. I think I will tell them when we get back from our mission then. No point in distracting them from the objective, now is there?" he said with a sad grin.

"I am glad to hear that Naruto-kun, and yes, that would probably best. Speaking of your mission, you need to go get ready, you are dismissed." Hiruzen told the boy with a smile, playfully shooing him out of the office.

Naruto smiled at the man's antics and rose from his seat before making a one-handed seal. "I'll see you soon old man." He said fondly to his grandfather in all but blood as he followed his sensei's example, and shunshined out of the building.

Hiruzen only had one thought on his mind as the boy left. 'Good luck, Naruto-kun.'

-Break-

At Naruto's apartment, he was currently sealing a couple of spare uniforms into a scroll. An added addition to his uniform had been extra accessories to his utility belt ever since he had taken up learning sealing. He wasn't exactly good at it yet, but he could make simple sealing scrolls as good as anybody and used them to carry all of his supplementary equipment when out on missions. Even with the help of his parents notes, he couldn't make much progress in Fuinjutsu.

'I'll probably need Jiraiya-sama to teach me that stuff.' He thought dejectedly. He really wanted to learn his clan's specialty, but without a teacher, it just seemed so complicated. Sure, he got the basics, and his calligraphy had always been top notch, but sealing was an art, and he needed a guide to progress in it.

Doing a check of all of his gear, Naruto noted that he still had about an hour before he had to make his way to the North gate.

'Might as well go and get some Ichiraku's before we leave.' He thought, and shunshined towards the correct street after leaving his apartment and locking the door.

Walking the rest of the way, he saw that the stall was almost packed, which made sense since it was the lunch rush. The only available seat seemed to be near a group of kids that looked to be his own age. After taking said seat, he looked to his right, where the kids were sitting, and realized that he was next to kids he had met before. Three seats away from himself, he recognized the chubby Akimichi boy whose father had given them a meal on the house a few months ago. Even as the boy waited for his ramen, he was munching down on a bag of potato chips.

To the boys left was the kid with the ark pineapple shaped hair-do, and he seemed to be trying to tone out the blonde girl that Naruto was directly to the left of. She seemed to have been in the middle of a rant.

"I swear, Forehead-girl just seems to be getting more and more annoying every day. Always trying to beat me to Sasuke-kun's seat in class. The little hussy." The girl hissed to the boy Naruto remember to be Shikamaru.

"I mean honestly, as if that sorry excuse for a female expects to win over a clan-heirs heart." She scoffed.

At this point, Teuchi had noticed Naruto sitting at the counter now after bringing the other preteens their ramen. He was glad to see the Red-head, it was almost two whole days since he had last seen him. "Naruto-kun! Good to see you my boy, what can I get started up for you!?" the man asked joyfully. He always enjoyed having the boy around.

This got the attention of Ino and Shikamaru, Choji had dove into his bow of ramen immediately and was no longer paying attention. Ino apparently recognized him from that time in the restaurant and decided to say hello.

"Hey, you are that Rookie that we ran into at Choji's dad's place, aren't you? Didn't think we would run into you again anytime soon." She questioned.

"I'll have three Miso bowls please Teuchi-jiji, thank you." Naruto addressed the stall owner before turning towards the blonde.

"Hello Ino-san, I guess I could say I didn't expect to run into you three either. Hello Shikamaru-san, Choji-san. How are your fathers?" Naruto greeted and asked amiably. He was always in a good mood when ramen was involved.

Ino rose an eyebrow to that, she had pretty much insulted the kid the last time they had met, so she was surprised he was being so polite to them. She answered anyways. "My dad is doing all right, thanks for asking, what about your parents?"

Even Choji, the boy face first into a bowl of Ramen could feel the mood drop a little after Ino asked that.

Shikamaru let out a long, suffering sigh. "Troublesome, Ino, you already know that Naruto here is an orphan, why would you ask that?" he chided the blonde.

Ino had the good graces to look mortified before she sputtered and turned back around to the red-head to try to apologize. She turned to his masked face seemingly being unchanged, his eyes even looked to be curved up in a smile. (someone had been learning mannerisms from a certain Hatake for far too long now)

"I am so sorry Naruto, it had honestly escaped my mind for a moment!" the blonde quickly apologized.

Naruto for his part truly wasn't that bothered by it. It was an honest mistake, and it was easier knowing who his parents were. "Think nothing of it Ino-san. It is not so much of a big deal, I am used to it." He replied, as Teuchi appeared with his first bowl of ramen.

Ino seemed a little assured by his claim, but she still felt bad. "Well still, my bad, so, what are you doing here, mister big bad Genin?" she prodded a little teasingly, trying to lighten the mood. The sound of Choji slurping noodles and a "troublesome blonde" could be heard behind her, her full attention on the red-head.

Naruto appeared to have magically ingested the entire bowl of ramen while she asked him that question, which was odd, because he had never removed his mask to begin eating.

Naruto responded while the blonde was giving him a gob smacked look. "Well Ino-san, Ichiraku's has the best ramen in town, and I am leaving for maybe a couple of weeks on another C-ranked mission. I don't know when I will be back, so I have got to get my fix now while I have the chance."

This shook Ino out of her shock and brought her back to reality. "Oh! what kind of mission do you have to do?" she interrogated excitedly.

Naruto grimaced a little at that, eliminations weren't exactly "fun". "We will be heading North to dispose of a couple dozen untasteful people that are causing some trouble." He replied with a flat, emotionless voice.

This got even Choji to stop eating his third bowl of ramen. "What do you mean, "dispose of" Naruto?" the heavy-set boy asked, still leaning over his bowl, looking a little pale now.

Naruto grimaced again before responding. "I mean exactly what I said Choji-san, there are bandits to the North, and Team Five has received orders to end their lives for their crimes."

The three academy students just stared at the boy who should have been in their academy class, similar thoughts running through each of their minds.

'How can he talk about killing people so easily at our age!? Just what type of training has he been through? Is this what I can expect from being a Genin?' Ino started to internally panic.

'Troublesome, he makes it sound like graduating is going to lead to so much extra work.' Were the thoughts of Shikamaru, mourning the lose of his cloud watching time.

'I.. I don't want to have to hurt people if I don't have to!' were from gentle Choji.

While these thoughts were playing out in the academy students mind, Naruto was already getting up to leave the stall, somehow already finishing his food without anyone noticing.

"Goodbye you three, and you too Teuchi-jiji! I'll see you when I get back. Say goodbye to Ayame-neechan for me, will you?" the red-head called to the stall vendor.

The academy students just watched the boy who outranked them leave, off to do gods knows what in the North.

-Break-

Team Five was in position and ready to make a move, the had caught up with their targets in Waterfall just as they were on their way returning to their camp after they raided the local highway. They followed them as they made their way to a creek bed not far from what the map indicated to be the border to Grass Country.

The sun was already setting, and they had quickly surrounded the camp before the bandits could settle all of their stolen goods down. All three Genin of the squad heard their earpieces come to life with an order from their sensei.

"Team Five, engage." Was Raido's whispered command. He stayed upon his perch, a tree branch giving him view of everyone. Immediately a hail of shuriken was let loose from all sides of the camp. Each of his Genin probably using the shadow clone technique to make their initiating attack more efficient.

The bandits began falling, some dead with in an instant, others being wounded, their screams resounding throughout the starting night. Few remained as his team quickly charged in and slaughtered the stragglers with extreme prejudice. Everything was all over in the matter of moments as Iroha could be seen pulling his sword from the gut of the last standing member of the troop.

The three Genin gathered together in the center of the field to await their sensei, and that was when everything went to shit.

'SHINOBI!' was Raido's only thought as he saw he students begin to dodge stone spikes springing up from the ground underneath his students.

-Break-

With Naruto.

Naruto picked up on the surge of chakra just before his teammates did, but luckily, they noticed it just in time as well. They all hurled themselves back towards the tree that they knew Raido-sensei was settled in, and kept their backs to him, trusting that he would spot a threat coming from behind them.

It turned out they didn't have to worry too much yet, as at least a portion of their attackers revealed themselves in the clearing soon enough. Three bodies of tanned men maybe a decade older than Team Five rose from the dirt, clearly using an Earth Jutsu.

Naruto redrew his tanto from behind his back, taking the time to hand sign to his sensei that they had the situation under control for now, and to stay hidden. They did not know who else may be with these three.

Once he had his blade back out, he took in all three of the enemy shinobi's appearances. The one all the way to his left was about six feet tall and looked as if he himself was made of rock. He was tanned, that was definite, and he had long black hair, a bulbous nose, and black, beady little eyes.

The man all the way to the right seemed to have a similar nose, as well as eyes. He stood a couple of inches shorter than the one on the left. The major difference was that his hair was merely a dark brown.

The final man in the center, he appeared to be six foot three inches tall, and a probable two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle, and had the same eyes as the others, nose, and the black hair of the first nin.

The glaring detail on all three were the fact that their hitai-ate, all of them had slashed running through the emblem for the village hidden in the Rocks. The Leaf village's sworn enemies from the last war, and this group were missing-nin from that accursed land.

The one in the center spoke to the three, an amused smile on his face.

"Well if we don't have our selves a few tree huggers, huh boys?" the man asked with a gravelly voice.

This got a chuckle from the other two, the one to Naruto's left responding with a "It appears we do, Kato-Niisan."

The newly dubbed Kato addressed the Genin directly. "So, care to tell us why three green Leaf Chunin are out here in Waterfall, and why you just killed all of our troops?" this was said with a sickly-sweet smile that did not at all belong on this man's face.

Naruto and his teammates shared a sideways glance to each other, each thinking the same thing. 'Chunin?'

They weren't about to correct the man, but they wondered why he thought they were, considering they didn't have their villages flak jacket that was only issued to the higher ranks. If he thought they were Chunin, then these Stone shinobi most likely had no clue that Raido-sensei was anywhere in the area.

"We are here by order of the Sandaime Hokage, who was fulfilling a request from our allies in the Waterfall village to eradicate this troop of bandits. If you value your lives, you will walk away from this place, and pretend that you saw nothing." Naruto addressed the middle man, hoping he would be at least a little intimidated.

The response he got to this was all three of the men laughing. "Please kid, do you have any idea who we are?" the one on the right asked.

Naruto, Iroha, and Tekuno tried to really think on it, and Tekuno surprisingly was the one to remember their Bingo book lessons. "I do recognize you three, you are the Tominaga brothers!"

"That's right brat, you guys already know Kato's name, I am Sanzo, and the third of us is Taisuke." The newly introduced Sanzo answered, with a head nod to his brother all the wat to Naruto's right.

"We left our village a few years ago as Chunin, and have only gotten stronger since, and we sure are pissed that you screwed up our little bandit operation out here. I am sorry to say this bu… nah, who am I kidding, I am going to enjoy gutting you three, we may not be loyal to our country any longer, but that doesn't mean we don't still hate you tree huggers." Kato addressed the Leaf shinobi, and with that the three brothers launched their assault against them. All three charged straight at them, seeming to prefer to try and just bulldoze through them. Tekuno was on Naruto's left, and rushed to head off Sanzo, while Iroha grabbed the hilt of his blade and went to meet Taisuke. This left Naruto with the much larger Kato.

'This might be difficult.' Naruto thought to himself before he shunshined closer to his opponent to try and get a quick debilitating blow in. He had tried to go for the man's jugular immediately, but he brought out a kunai and deflected the red-head's blade just in time. Kato countered with his free right hand and tried to choke slam the jinchuuriki.

Naruto's saving grace seemed to be that the man in front of him wasn't overly fast, and instead just seemed to possess great strength. His opponent started running through hand signs after he dodged, and soon a giant dragon made of earth was hurtling towards Naruto.

'WELL THAT'S NOT GOOD!' were his thoughts before he tried to get away with a kawarimi.

With Tekuno, Saito seemed to be a little bit faster than his brother Kato, but it translated into a sloppy technique, and a lot of telegraphed movement. 'Is this guy serious, these three are supposed to be at least C-ranked missing-nin, there is no way he can fight this badly.'

His opponent did not seem to notice that he wasn't making any progress as Tekuno repeatedly avoided any of the man's strikes. "I am going to enjoy slitting your throat Leaf nin!" said Sanzo, swinging a kunai knife wildly at the boy.

'He doesn't honestly think he is going to get me if he continues on like this, does he?' He thought before Sanzo leapt back and went through a set of hand signs, and before Tekuno knew it, a dragon of earth was heading straight for him. "SHIT!"

With Iroha, things were going a bit better. It seemed he had gotten the luck of the draw, as his opponent seemed to be the slowest and dumbest. Iroha used his blade to keep the man back far away enough, but Taisuke was clearly getting frustrated with the boy.

"I'll show you, you pathetic Leaf! Try this on for size!" Taisuke shouted before rapidly going through hand signs, and soon a dragon of earth was heading for the boy.

'You have got to be joking.' Was Iroha's only thought, as he noticed that his teammates were all about to have to dodge the same jutsu, used by all three combatants.

With Raido, he was going through his Bingo book to try and get intel on these three as fast as possible.

'Here we go, the Tominaga brothers. Believed to be C-rank in strength when separated. Only a true threat when they can work together. The reason they are even a C-ranked is because they did a team jutsu of throwing three earth dragons at their opponents at the same time, which is a B-ranked jutsu.' Raido read.

'Well, I guess my kids may be able to handle this alone… Or not.' He sweat dropped upon seeing that the missing nin how somehow seemed to all launch the technique the book warned about, all at the same time.

Back with Tekuno, he managed to dodge by sinking into the dirt, and tried to use his double decapitation technique on Sanzo. Sanzo, also being an earth user, and an experienced one, was able to sense him in the ground at the last second and jumped away as Tekuno's hands broke free from the ground.

Quickly recovering, Tekuno got himself back above ground quick as a trick, and squared off again with Sanzo.

"Oh ho brat, so you have an Earth affinity? This just got a little fun."

'I do not like the grin he is wearing' thought Tekuno with a grimace, kind of creeped out about the ugly creature called a man before him.

With Iroha again, he had to get out of the way the old-fashioned way and used a kawarimi. He got himself behind Taisuke and bum rushed the man from behind, hell bent on decapitating him. Taisuke seemed to have a better fighting instinct than he thought, and actually grabbed Iroha's blade with his bare hands to stop the deadly arch or metal.

"Heh, you are going to have to better than that brat if you think you can kill me, that blade won't do you any good, I can use earth chakra to harden my body." Taisuke bragged, and gave that beautiful bit of information to Iroha, causing the Genin to grin like a lecher.

"Earth chakra, you say?

Naruto had also dodged with a kawarimi, and immediately threw a storm of shuriken towards Kato, courtesy of a shadow shuriken jutsu. The man heard the sound of deadly spinning knives and countered with a quick earth wall.

"Heh, so you don't have your rank without good cause, huh twerp? No matter, it just makes this fight more fun for me and my brothers. Your teammates are even still alive." Kato bragged to the red-head, still completely sure that he and his brothers would be walking as the victors today.

"You know, I can't see your face, but something about you seems familiar. What family do you belong to in the Leaf?" Kato prodded.

Naruto was trying to buy himself some time as he formulated a plan. He was a good distance away from Kato, but the man had proved that he had at least one long range destructive jutsu. 'And I still don't have anything for defense.' He thought. 'He won't be living long, I guess I can keep him distracted with my name.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, of the Uzumaki clan." He responded.

Kato actually froze at that news. "No.. you all were wiped out. YOU WILL DIE HERE TODAY!" Kato roared before he charged Naruto again, his kunai prepped to gut the teen like a pig.

'Maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.' Naruto sweat dropped, and immediately parried the knife away with his tanto. 'I am lucky this guy is so slow.'

"Your retched clan killed scores of my family back in the previous wars. Your kind belong buried in the ground, forgotten by the world. That name is just a relic!" Kato seemed to be getting more and more infuriated as Naruto repeatedly parried all of his attacks. One attack cut along Naruto's cheek, and ripped a good portion of his mask away, letting one side fold away from the rest, and revealing a good portion of his face. A bit of blood dripping down his cut left cheek, free for the world to see.

'Seems I have unhinged him a little bit. He is fighting far sloppier than earlier. I should be able to walk away from this.' Were his thoughts.

After his face mask came away, Kato jumped back and away from him, panting hard, and his eyes wide in disbelief. 'I wonder what's wrong with him now?'

"It can't be… The red hair was throwing me off, as well as your last name and mask, but I know where I recognized you from now. HIM. You look exactly like him from his younger days! YOU'RE A RELATIVE OF THE YELLOW FLASH!" Kato boomed.

Tekuno had been using his decapitation technique to dodge attack after attack from Sanzo. It appeared the man could throw earth jutsu around left and right. 'This is getting ridiculous.' He thought at he rose from the ground behind Sanzo once again, letting loose a kunai to keep the man on his toes at least a little bit. It was then that he heard Kato's shout, and his, and his opponent's heads whipped about towards the larger man and the red-heads fight, eyes wide open.

'SON OF THE FLASH!?'

Iroha quickly channeled his element to his sword, causing Taisuke to curse and let go of his sword, and back away.

"Unluckily for you, I just happen to know how to use the lightning element." Iroha smirked to the man who was now trying to shake his hand out to get feeling back into it after his earth chakra was dissipated.

"That doesn't mean a thing tree hugger, you will still die this day." Taisuke growled out.

"Is that so? I don't think you realize what team you are dea….." Iroha trailed of, the loud shout from Kato stealing both his own and his opponent's attention.

"The Yondaime's Son!?" he and Taisuke both gasped out.

Raido just palmed his face from his perch. 'Great, only a few months to knowing, and one of his secrets have already been spilled. You guys better kill these three off quick now, I don't want to have to step into anything but a bottle of sake right about now.'

He shouted to his team quickly, with an order that they were rarely given outside of training.

"That's enough you three, we are going to have enough to talk about. Lower your weights and kill these fools."

He got an immediate response from his kids, never minding the fact of the startling revelation two just heard.

"Hai Sensei!" and with that chorus, Raido knew the job was as good as done. 'Make it quick guys.'

Tekuno turned back towards Sanzo with a grim smile. 'I am sorry to cut out fun short, but our Jonin has given his orders." He said with a wicked grin. He would enjoy this bastards' look of locked surprise after he killed him. 'God damned long range earth jutsu!'

"KAI!" Tekuno said, his right hand brought up in a half ram seal. "Now that feels better." He said, shaking his limbs out. "So sorry about this, but time for this to end!" and with that, the brown-haired boy became a blur, and the next think Sanzo knew was a feeling of something warm dripping down the front of his neck. 'Huh, that's weird.' He thought to himself, looking around for the twerp he was fighting.

It was a few seconds later before the pain caught up with his brain, and he began choking for air, breathing becoming a right chore. He brought his hands up to his throat, and then to his eyes which were wide in fear. 'Is, that my blood?' he asked, before all he could see was black.

Tekuno was behind the man, his back turned to him, and was wiping his kunai of in the grass of the forest floor. He sighed in dejection, killing truly was one of his least favorite things.

'Hopefully we will be heading home soon, I could use a drink right about now.'

Back with Iroha, he too quickly released his weights, not even bothering to address his opponent. Taisuke sensed danger and ran through seals and screamed at the end of the sequence. "Body of rock technique! Weights or no weights, lightning or no, you won't win today!" The man was now completely submersed in a rock like skin that looked truly cumbersome.

Iroha just smiled grimly at the poor man, he truly had no idea, did he?

Iroha charge his blade with as much lightning chakra as he could, and soon was upon Taisuke in a flash, his blade in the end of a swing held behind him a bit, himself in a lunge as if he had halted a sprint at the last second. He was behind Taisuke, who's eyes where wide, and he tried to turn to the Genin, but before he could, he torso separated from his waist, and soon the rock man laid in pieces on the ground.

'Note to self, Lighting cuts through earth armor, VERY, well.'

Back with Naruto, the command to release his weights were followed without a second thought, and soon his tanto was sticking out the back of the throat of Kato. "You made a mistake deciding to fight today." He said to the man, who was choking with the length of blade still in his throat. "You could have just left, it is clear you three have gotten rusty with your time as missing-nin. You just had to should out about my father, though didn't you? No matter, I would have had to tell them sooner or later. I guess today will be the day they know to what I am a legacy of." Were Naruto's cold words for the dying man before he ripped his tanto back out.

Kato fell to his knees at this point and took in the dead bodies of his brothers on the ground, tears filling his eyes, rom fear, pain, and from sadness over his younger siblings. Just as he was losing to the darkness, the damn red-headed spawn of THAT man had to twist the knife some more in his metaphorical wounds.

"Oh, and by the way, we are Genin." Said Naruto as he cleaned his tanto and kicked the man over.

On the ground, Kato's eyes were wide in shock, and tried to suck in one last breath before all he knew was the Shinigami.

Naruto walked in the direction of his sensei, his teammates already converging on the spot as well. He knew there would be a long conversation on the way home. 'And we still have to dispose of all of the bodies, great' he groused internally.

Our poor Genin friend had a lot to deal with, and his fourth C-rank had definitely been upgraded at this point. 'Damn bad intel, that shit can get you killed.' He shook his head of his thoughts and joined the team.

Tekuno was the first to speak. "So… The Yondaime?" he queried.

Naruto couldn't help but give a suffering sigh. He really wasn't ready for this, and he didn't know how the other two Genin would react to the revelations he was soon to share.

"I'll tell you when we get back to the village." Was all he said before the team got to work cleaning up the area.


	13. The Yondaime'

A/N: Ok guys, I am sorry that I have been gone for a while. A lot of life things have been happening but hey, welcome to adulting. This has been sitting in a word document waiting for me to get back to it. I wanted to make it longer, but there was only so much I ended up wanting to put in before I started crafting the next chapter. I have a possible Beta lined up, so chapters after this one will hopefully be better quality.

Now the tally on the girls. I got enough input, at this point, it will be a surprise for you guys.

Chapter Thirteen: 'The Yondaime?'

"I'll tell you when we get back to the village." Was all he said before the team got to work cleaning up the area.

-Break-

The only talking in the area was being done by Raido-sensei giving out basic instructions for the disposal of all the bodies. Naruto had watched the man cut the dead shinobi's heads off their bodies and seal them into a scroll. 'He must want them to claim the bounty as a bonus for the team's weekly paycheck.' He mused to himself. Being interested in Fuinjutsu, he had overlooked the fact that sealing could be used for darker things such as what he just witnessed.

Naruto was currently stacking bodies into a pile, Tekuno and Iroha spreading out to go and drag the straggler's bodies over. He knew the others weren't very talkative right now since the reveal of his father was kind of a large information bomb. 'Can't say I blame them, they are probably trying to add up how I could be the man's son and get treated the way I do in the village.'

Tekuno and Iroha had been with him a couple of times getting barred from entering a civilian restaurant or store. He had tried to warn them that he wouldn't be allowed in, but they thought that was nonsense. After getting shooed away, they only ever tried shinobi places when they were with him from now on, shinobi weren't exactly warm and welcoming, but they still gladly took his business.

He was trying to decide whether confirming that he was Minato Namikaze's son would be a good idea. 'I should just leave this up to Hiruzen-Jiji, he did tell me not to tell anyone after all.' If he did it that way, then he wouldn't be going against orders. The other question was if this was a good time to admit something else to his teammates.

'Should I tell them about the fox as well?' he thought, very unsure about the whole situation.

-Break-

A few days later and Team Five was standing in front of their Kage. The upgrade of their mission from a C-rank, to a B-rank usually warranted a debriefing from the Hokage. Now, well it was more complicated than that. 'At least this is about an S-ranked secret, so I won't have to do extra paperwork.' Hiruzen thought to himself.

'Oh Naruto-kun.' He thought while gazing at the boy who looked nervous but was trying to hide the fact by remaining at strict attention with his eyes forward. 'Nothing is ever easy for you is it?' he questioned silently.

Raido had just finished giving him a run down of what happened, and it really was bad luck that a missing-nin recognized Naruto for who he was, and who's legacy he was.

"Naruto-kun." He addressed the boy. Cerulean blue eyes locked onto his immediately.

"Yes Hokage-sama."

"I believe the cat is out of the bag as one would say, would you like to explain about your father to your teammates, or would you prefer me to do it?" Hiruzen asked.

Naruto seemed to ponder this for several moments, truly weighing whether he wanted to or not. Eventually, he nodded to himself and responded quietly. "I would like to tell them Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen gave the boy a small smile and gestured for him to do so. Naruto had been to the far most right side of the rest of his team and turned inboard to look at the other preteens. He took a long breathe. And decided to just dive head first.

"Tekuno, Iroha, what do you guys know about the Kyubbi attack?" he asked slowly, still unsure of the whole thing.

Tekuno looked confused for a moment and glanced to Iroha, who had an eyebrow raised in question. Iroha spoke for the two of them. "Only what we learned in the academy, that the Yondaime killed the beast at the cost of his life. What does that have to do with him possibly being your dad?"

Naruto sighed again. "Well Iroha, when is my birthday?"

Iroha and Tekuno both shrugged before Tekuno blurted out the answer. "October tenth, what does that have to do with anything?"

Iroha turned towards Tekuno, a look of understanding on his face. "He was born the night his father sacrificed himself for the village you dope!"

Tekuno had the sense to look sheepish at that and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Oh yeah, I guess he did, sorry about that Naruto."

Naruto chuckled a little at that. "It's alight Tekuno, but that isn't the only important factor of that night. Let me explain, Minato Namikaze is indeed my father, which according to Hokage-sama is an S-ranked secret. I wouldn't even be telling you guys until we are Chunin, but those missing-nin kind of ruined that plan. You can never tell anyone what you know, it could cause an international incident and spark off another Shinobi World War."

His teammates shared a look and nodded in understanding before gesturing for him to continue, they could tell that that wasn't all that Naruto had to say. 'They do know me well enough from missions at least.' He thought to himself. "There is another important piece of information that is also S-ranked, but I am at liberty to tell you. This is the actual account of what happened to the Kyubbi the night my father 'killed it'. The truth is, he didn't. That night the only way to stop the fox's rampage was to seal it away into something. Based on the way that the adult villager's treat me, what would you guess it was sealed into?"

During his explanation, Iroha was steadily looking more and more disturbed while Tekuno was a little bit slower on the uptake. "How are we supposed to know what he sealed it into? It couldn't have been any old object now could it?" he asked. Then, as if an epiphany sparked in his brain he asked again "OH! Did he seal it into the Hokage Monument? That would be big enough to hold it, wouldn't it?"

The adults in the room openly laughed at that, and Iroha smacked Tekuno in the back of the head for his silliness. "He's trying to tell us it was sealed into him you baka!" said Iroha. Iroha slowly turned back to Naruto. "You.. That is what you are trying to say, right? That you contain the fox?"

Naruto merely nodded, wanting to gauge his two teammates reactions. He wasn't expecting what came out of Tekuno's mouth next, but then again, maybe he should have.

"Sweet! Does it give you any powerful powers by like proxy or something then!?"

Everyone turned to look at Tekuno at that. The Hokage and Raido were each looking at him with eyebrows raised and were internally asking themselves the same things now. Hiruzen had known two jinchuuriki and neither had ever used the beast's power to supplement their own. He didn't have a good idea of what a Kyubbi jinchuuriki could actually do on the battlefield.

"Umm, besides abnormally large chakra reserves, I haven't exactly used its chakra before." Naruto responded before turning to his surrogate grandfather. "Hokage-sama, when is Jiraiya going to be coming to teach me about that anyways?"

"Well Naruto-kun, it won't be so much that he will teach you, it is just that I want him and a certain Jonin in ANBU to be your trainers when accessing your second chakra supply. Jiraiya, for his expertise in sealing, and the ANBU because of a special ability he has to help calm down Biju." Hiruzen explained.

Naruto nodded in understanding and was about to make a replying remark before Iroha interrupted him.

"Training with it is all well and good and whatever, but can we get back to the fact that Naruto has a demon fox inside of him!?" The civilian born shinobi asked. He couldn't believe that everybody else was so calm about this. 'Poor Naruto, I wonder if the demon ever influences him?' He knew Naruto grew up an odd and lonely child, he wasn't sure how it affected him, and that scared him. "I don't mean to sound like an ass, but is the village safe with him being in it? How do we know that a seal can hold back this fox?" Iroha asked the Hokage, forgetting his place for a moment, and missed the slightly hurt look on Naruto's face as he did so.

Hiruzen frowned in response and took a second before answering. "Iroha-kun, Minato-kun was one of the best seal masters outside of the Uzumaki clan to ever walk this world. He used a forbidden technique which utilized the Shinigami of all things to seal the Kyubbi into Naruto here. As far as Jiraiya explained the seal to me, only a key can unlock it, which is in Jiraiya's possession. Besides that, the seal is designed so that Naruto can have access to the beast's chakra, to make him a more powerful influence on any battlefield he may walk onto when he is older. Jinchuuriki, or human sacrifices if you will, are shinobi who are deterrents of war, they are army killers, and Naruto's seal allows him to be as such. You have much less to fear of him as you would if you were a shinobi in another village. I hear that the jinchuuriki they have in the Hidden Sand village has gone insane and goes around killing random people when he feels like it, and they do nothing about it."

"I promise you, I haven't gone insane yet Iroha, and I don't think I ever will." Naruto awkwardly tried to reassure the boy that he wasn't a safety concern for the village.

Iroha looked slightly ashamed after looking at Naruto again. He caught the look of uneasiness on his teammates face and realized this must be hard for him. "I'm sorry Naruto, I'm sure you would never willingly hurt anyone in the village, except maybe Neji, but I don't know a lot about sealing. Can you blame me for wanting to know these answers?"

"By gods Iroha, don't be such a wimp. We have a chakra power house like Naruto on our team and you want to complain? We have the Chunin exams in less than two months! This is great news." Tekuno chirped in. His teammates each turned towards him and gave him a funny look. He caught the look and started scratching around on his face. "What? Do I have something on my face or something?" he asked.

Naruto just shook his head in amusement. "No Tekuno, we are looking at you strangely because of your attitude on the situation. Why is me being a jinchuuriki great news?"

"Well what do you mean? Better to have a Jinchuuriki on your team as opposed to facing off against your team, right?" Was the brown-haired Genin's simple response. "I mean Hokage-sama has already confirmed that we have nothing to worry about regarding you, and the seal was done by the Yondaime. What is the issue?"

"Tekuno, the issue is that Naruto is a demon container, does that not shock you at all?" Iroha asked him.

"I mean, it makes sense now actually, with the way the older villager's treat him. Most shinobi are friendly enough towards him with a few exceptions, but I guess you're only worried since you came form a civilian family. Sealing is ridiculously powerful Iroha, and if someone as powerful as Yondaime-sama was the one making the seal to stow the fox into Naruto, then most shinobi in the village can assure you that the village has nothing to fear about Naruto. The only people who should worry about him is anyone we go to war with in my eyes."

"I mean I know I don't know much about Fuinjutsu, but do you really believe it can hold back a demon fox?" Iroha asked the boy incredulously.

Tekuno nodded.' Yeah, I do, my dad explained a bit to me. He doesn't know much about it either, but he talked about all of the amazing things that seal masters could pull off with seals. He even mentioned the Uzumaki clan slaughtering a whole bunch of the attackers who destroyed their village before they were scattered to the winds after the war. Also, dude, death god put the fox in him, fix isn't getting out." He said with a final sagely nod, as if he had just given a pupil a lesson he would use for the rest of his life.

Now everyone was looking at him strangely again. Hiruzen and Raido, because of how understanding the usually boisterous child was being opposed to Iroha, who was more concerned than any had ever seen him.

"That is very insightful of you Tekuno-kun. Your teammate is right about Naruto and the seal that holds the fox back Iroha. I assure you that you have nothing to fear, I give you my word as your Kage on that." Said Hiruzen.

Iroha seemed unsure for another few moments before he nodded. "I believe you Hokage-sama. I don't think Naruto is dangerous, he is my friend and I trust him. The idea of the fox just makes me nervous. I'm sorry if I offended you Naruto, but you have to understand where I am coming from, don't you?"

Naruto breathed out a sigh of relief. Iroha had been making him think that he was going to turn his back on him. "No, I get that. It is a scary thing to think about. I was a little skeptical myself when I found out a few months ago. My dad sealed the fox into me to protect the village, he wouldn't have made me into a ticking time bomb that could ruin his hard work of keeping the Leaf safe, now would he?" he tried to joke, as horrible as it was.

It got a small smile from Iroha. "Yeah, I guess he wouldn't."

Tekuno snaked his way in between the two and threw his arms over their shoulders. "Outstanding, glad we have an understanding. Now, if you two can shut-up, I am starving. Can we please go to that Akimichi barbeque place?"

Raido laughed at this. "Well hold on their Tekuno, our debriefing isn't finished. Hokage-sama, as each of these three took down a C-ranked missing-nin, I believe the respective bounty should be given to each individual who took them out. I require nothing on my paycheck since I wasn't responsible for any of the kills. The other concern is will this go down as a B-ranked mission on their records, and will the pay stay at C-ranked?" Raido said while addressing the Hokage.

"It will indeed be a B-ranked, and I'll ensure that the bounties get into the respective accounts for each of your subordinates. Your pay will be equivalent to a standard B-ranked mission. The Waterfall village will be more than understanding enough to send the required funds over now that we have given them some more breathing room towards their southern borders. They have a large breakout of bandits gathering in their Northwest border with Earth country." Hiruzen responded. "Now, I believe that is all I will need from you for now. Raido, collect a written report from each of your Genin, and turn them in when you bring me your own will you?"

"Hai Hokage-sama, we will take our leave now, good afternoon. Team Five, let's leave."

With that Raido ushered his students out of the Hokage's office leaving the old man alone with his thoughts. Hiruzen reached into his desk drawer and pulled out his favorite pipe. He packed a bowl of fresh tobacco in it and lit it with a match as opposed to using a small amount of fire chakra. 'Sometimes, it's the little things.' He thought to himself, puffing on the leaves to make a nice ember burn. He turned towards his windows and gazed upon the likenesses of the Hokage's, specifically his successor/predecessor. 'Minato-kun, your boy has grown. He has people accepting him now. Maybe soon, the rest of the village will see him for what he is.'

-Break-

Awhile later saw Team Five at the Akimichi Barbeque once again. This had turned into their tradition for whenever they completed a mission above a D-ranked. Even while eating, Naruto didn't take his face mask off, having learned to eat without revealing his face to anyone the way Kakashi did. Currently, they were waiting for the food to be brought to them to be cooked and had just gotten their first bottle of sake delivered to the table.

Raido once again poured a saucer for each of his students and bought his own up in a toast. "To another successful mission you guys, I'm proud of you, this time you tested yourself against enemy shinobi, and we will cover everything that could have been done better, but first, To Team Five!"

"To Team Five!" was the chorused response. The team downed their sake and set their saucers down, smacking their lips.

"You guys have really gotten a taste for this stuff now, huh?" Raido teased the boys.

"You're damn right sensei. All the shit you make us do, we've earned some sake I think.' Tekuno shot back.

"I just genuinely like the taste at this point sensei." "Same here." Said Iroha and Naruto in order.

"Well, as long as it's in moderation, and you guys don't become lushes and let it interfere with missions and training, I don't care. Anyways, you guys completed your first b-ranked mission even though you didn't know you were getting into one. I am proud of you all and how you handled yourselves, but you could have done much better in those fights. Those brothers were damn near pathetic, living on the laurels of their former shinobi days. They were out of practice, that was for sure. What do you guys think you could have done better?"

Iroha was the first to respond. "We shouldn't have allowed them to set the pace of the fight and allow ourselves to be separated from each other."

Raido nodded. "This is true, you guys could have covered for each other if you had assumed a defensive formation. This was the first-time you guys were the ones being ambushed though, as opposed to being the ambushers. Bandits, you all usually run through like butter, but as you learned, shinobi, even ones as week as those brothers, are an entirely different story. What else, think about your individual fights."

"I could have ensnared my opponent into a Genjutsu, but I allowed him to set the pace, and I couldn't get my hands up into any hand signs to mold my chakra after the fact. If I could have broken off at one point, I could have weaved one together or something I am sure." Naruto put in.

"That's right, you have the most versatile repertoire out of the three of you Naruto, yet you forgot to use any of your long list of jutsu. You could have used a Genjutsu on your opponent and killed him quickly, and then it would have been like a domino effect once you started providing support to your teammates. Anyone else?"

"I could have tried being a bit smarter about how I was fighting my guy, but he just kept throwing jutsu after jutsu at me. It was actually kind of ridiculous, I had to stay underground for the most part otherwise I would have been done for." Tekuno admitted, not too happy with his performance from before he disengaged his weights.

"This is true, I was watching your fight though Tekuno, there wasn't too much else you could have done besides maybe linking back up with one of your teammates and making it a two vs two as opposed to the separate open vs ones. Iroha, there wasn't much else for you either, I would just say that since you knew they used earth jutsu, you should have been channeling lightning into your blade from the get-go." Said Raido, addressing the black-haired boy as he finished.

"Still guys, you handled yourselves well, and no one got injured or killed. You have yet to receive barely a scratch from any of our higher-level missions, and I am impressed. I will one-hundred percent be nominating you guys to the Chunin exams. We have done more than enough missions, we will take a slow down from D-ranks for a bit. I'll make a new schedule more focused on training than anything else, so the day after tomorrow expect to report back to the training grounds at the usual time with a written report of the mission from your perspective."

"Hai sensei." Was the response he got just as the food was being brought to them, and they noticed a familiar party joining the same table they did last time near them.

"Team Five! Welcome back to my restaurant! How are you guys enjoying your meal so far?" Choza Akimichi asked the Genin cell with a large, friendly smile plastered on his face, as hand placed on his son Choji's left shoulder.

Tekuno was focused on getting the meat cooked over the grill as fast as possible and didn't look up at the man but gave a quick one-handed thumbs up. "The sake was great as usual Choza-san! The meat smells perfectly seasoned though, can't wait to eat."

Raido shook his head at the boy's antics. "It does look good Choza. So, what are you guys up to?"

"Oh, we just got back from teaching the kids use the family techniques in conjunction with one another. Hokage-sama hasn't made any promises yet, but we expect them to be a team together considering they all were practically raised as siblings." Shikaku answered from his seat, his son Shikamaru already grumbling under his breath about troublesome parents.

"Yeah, we were showing them some of the formations we did together as Genin. Hopefully with these extra lessons on top of the academy, they will be the best Genin team of their class like I hear yours is Raido-kun." Inoichi added, pouring a glass of water for himself and his daughter, Ino.

"That's right, as much as I wish I could be on a team with my Sasuke-kun, I can't really break tradition or leave a group up that is known to work." Ino chirped in.

"Well, I am glad to see you guys are taking things seriously. Who do you guys have in your class?" Naruto asked the girl.

"Oh, hey Naruto. Well there is Sasuke-kun of course, but then we have Kiba Inuzuka, ugh, he always smells like wet dogs. Hmm, there is Hinata Hyuga, she is a timid little thing, Shino Aburame or bug boy as I like to call him. There is forehead, she's from the Haruno family, we just recently had this kid with no last name, his name is Sai, and he has got to be the most socially retarded person I have ever met." Ino listed off. "Those are the people of note at least, the rest of the class are ok, but I kind of only interact with the other shinobi children."

"Well as strong as the Uchiha may be, if the three of you are on a team, and he doesn't get decent teammates, you guys should be able to outclass him." Naruto calculated. "Good luck on that though, it will still take quite a bit of work."

"Troublesome, I don't want to have to compete with that damned Sasuke. It's bad enough we have extra training after being in the academy all day. Why do we have to o all this extra training when it can wait until after we pass the Genin examinations?" Shikamaru groused with his forehead touching the surface of the table.

"Don't be a brat Shikamaru you already know why, it's so that you can be properly prepared for the shinobi lifestyle. Did you forget the kind of mission that Team Five has already done? They are still considered rookie Genin, and they have an extensive mission portfolio already. You can't expect to skate by and do well out there. I don't like being the one that has to give you the extra training, but your mother is insistent that I show you all that I can. You know she is a worrywart." Shikaku chided the boy.

"That doesn't mean I have to like it." Shikamaru complained, his head still down on the table. Choji was just chuckling to himself as he ate a bag of chips, waiting for the waitress to come and take their orders.

"I don't mind the extra training if our dads treat us to barbeque after every session." He added in.

"Well we know food is the best way to get you to do anything at all Choji, but at least you can get motivated, unlike that lazy bum over here." Ino said as she gestured with her thumb towards Shikamaru.

She turned back towards Team Five. "So, what are you guys celebrating this time? Another C-ranked mission?" she asked.

"My cute little students here just finished their first B-ranked mission. We ran into some missing-nin from The Hidden Stone village on a standard bandit elimination job. These guys pulled through against Chunin level opponents with barely a scratch, they are a shoo-in for the exams, I expect at least one of them to get promoted from it." Raido announced.

"Wow, congratulations you three, that's impressive." Inoichi said to the boys of Team Five with an encouraging smile. "I'll be placing bets on your team Raido, I hope they don't let me down. He joked towards the Jonin.

"Your bets and mine Inoichi, these brats are the real deal, that much is true enough." Said Radio.

"Heh, I find it funny how you are sending your Genin team off to the exams, yet Guy isn't, I would expect that man to jump at the chance for his students to 'test their youthfulness'. Shikaku joked.

"Well, I can understand that Guy wants to wait awhile, it is peace time right now, so there is no need to rush the kids. Naruto-kun here is hell bent on joining ANBU though, and his teammates would be terrible to hold him back from that." Choza added.

"Hey now Choza-san! Naruto isn't the only one looking forward to these exams. Chunin get access to higher level jutsu at the shinobi library. I can't wait to have clearance to go and grab me some of those." Tekuno exclaimed, a worrying grin plastered on his face. His teammates saw this and sweat dropped. "This kid and Ninjutsu' they thought in unison.

-Break-

The rest of the time at the barbeque was spent chatting amicably with the Ino-Shika-Cho formation and their kids. Interacting with kids that should have been his graduating class had Naruto wondering what his life would have been like if he started training to be a shinobi later into his childhood than he did. He was on the day off that Raido-sensei had given him and the others, sitting atop the Hokage Monument, specifically his father's head.

He was watching the sunset after a day of personal training and was working on the written report of Hiruzen-jiji. After a half hour of writing, he deemed it good enough, and stowed the scroll into his utility pouch. He began thinking about his parents, and life that he could have had, if they had survived.

'Would they have treated me well, being a jinchuuriki?' he thought to himself, before remembering that his mother was the container before him. 'That was a stupid question.'

He would often come up here to think, now that he knew the truth. It was the closest he could feel with either of his parents outside of their journals and scrolls. Studying the material, they left behind was all well in good, but he knew it wasn't the same as being able to interact with a real family.

'If only you guys could have lived.'

-Break-

The next day saw Naruto at training ground five a few minutes before the show time. Turns out he was the last one there, his teammates and sensei already waiting for him. When he pulled up closer, he greeted them. "Good morning guys, sensei."

Tekuno yawned at him in what must have been an attempt at a hello, and Iroha nodded.

"Good morning Naruto, now that we are all here, time for me to layout the schedule for you guys. We will be meeting at the same time as usual, so that doesn't change. The main thing that does is an increase to physical, team, and individual training. We will be cutting down on missions a lot, so I hope you all have more than enough in savings and can be frugal enough. We will only do two D-ranks a week, and we won't be taking another C-ranked at all, I don't want to risk you guys getting injured before the exam. Starting today, you will each up your weights another ten pounds per limb. This puts Naruto at one hundred and thirty-five per, and you other two at forty per." Raido explained to the kids. All three actually groaned which was surprising, as Naruto rarely complained about any training at all.

"Your beginning exercises will be the same as always, I will just be throwing weapons at you while you do them from now on, think of it as evasion training." He said with an evil smile adorning his face.

The three Genin audibly gulped at this. "Oh, and that is not all, I've talked to Kakashi, he will be stopping in twice a week to assist me in thrashing you guys for a whole day." Raido added, looking far too pleased with himself. "We leave for the Hidden sand six weeks from today. This will give us a week of travel time if we need it, and also give us a few days rest for before it begins. Now that you have a small idea of what the schedule will look like, lets put it into practice." He said as he began drawing senbon needles from his leg pouch. "This is gonna be fun!"

-Break-

Two hours later left three very exhausted and slightly bleeding Genin sitting on the grass of training ground five. Tekuno could be pulling a senbon out of his right shoulder and trying to get a few from his back next. The boy looked like a literal pincushion after all those exercises and dodging. 'Adding the extra weight to us this morning was a truly evil thing to do before starting evasion training sensei.' Naruto thought to himself.

Raido-sensei wouldn't let them stop the training until they had made it all the way up to the required one thousand repetitions for the majority of their work outs. Trying to dodge and do pull ups when hanging from a tree branch by their chakra had been interesting… And extremely slow going.

"Ok you three, I'll give you another two minutes of a break to get the senbon out of you. Next, you are running formations. I have your 'targets set up all along the woods and the grounds. Your objective will be to switch between all the formations you know and pick the correct one for approaching each type of target. I'll give you a brief description of the type of mission you are conducting in between each target point so there shouldn't be too much confusion. After that, a small amount of thrown weapons training, and then we are on to Taijutsu spars." Raido explained to the team.

Three groans were what he got in response. 'When did Raido-sensei become such a sadist?' Naruto thought to himself. 'Even I have never trained this hard all these years I have been getting ready for ANBU. This is ridiculous!'

"Ok guys, times up get a move on." Once again, the response to Raido-sensei's orders were a few low groans.

'This next month and a half is going to suck.' Were the thoughts of all three Genin members of Team Five.

-Break-

'When Raido said that he was going to have Kakashi-Nii help out with the training, he really meant it.' Naruto thought as he blocked another punch from said man. He was working with Kakashi on trying to perfect his Taijutsu against a more experienced opponent. So far, all he was managing was getting his ass beat.

-Break-

Two weeks before the day that the team had to leave, they had just finished up another full day of training, and Naruto was exhausted beyond belief. 'I don't even want to know how Tekuno and Iroha feel, they don't have a tailed beast healing them like I do' he thought to himself.

The team had certainly been going hard at their training. Kakashi had ended up running them through a miniature ANBU bootcamp essentially whenever he was helping. When this was happening, Kakashi acted as the ANBU commander, and they were operatives trying to go up against Raido. To say this was some of the most intensive 'search and destroy' training they ever got would be an understatement.

Raido constantly came at the Genin with massive amounts of killing intent, and speeds that they could barely follow. Taking their weights off were usually the only way that they could complete their assigned task, and even then the majority of the time their mock training missions resulted in failure.

On days when Kakashi wasn't available, they shifted some more focus into individual abilities. These were the days that they could develop their specialties, Ninjutsu for Tekuno, Kenjutsu for Iroha, and Naruto, well Naruto just trained a little bit of everything.

He himself had learned a defensive Water Jutsu, this one being a B-Ranked just from the huge chakra cost. Water Style: Water Formation Wall makes a large defensive wall of water around the user, using water either spit out from the body, or from their surroundings. Naruto had gotten the latter down quick enough, getting to the point of being able to produce the water himself took far too much chakra with his level of water manipulation, but was doable thanks to the Kyubbi. He had one more C-ranked supplementary water jutsu. This one was Water Style: Starch Syrup Capturing Field. It required the user to produce a sticky liquid that could be used as an adhesive trap against enemies.

Naruto had the C-ranked of the two at a combat ready level and would soon have his B-ranked down pat. Alas, ever the perfectionist, our Red-head just wouldn't quit until he got something perfect.

The walk, or slow crawl, back to his apartment seemed to take forever for Naruto. 'Two weeks left to get water formation wall complete. That isn't much time at all. Raido-sensei is adamant about me having a defensive jutsu though, so I can't fail the team now.' He thought to himself.

It wasn't until he finally got to his apartment and ate dinner, showered, and went to bed did his mind wander from the upcoming exams. Two weeks from now Naruto Uzumaki and the rest of team five would be leaving the Village Hidden in the Leaves to go and make an attempt at becoming Chunin.


End file.
